Justine Henin won the latest battle in the most fierce rivalry in women’s tennis with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 quarterfinal victory over seventh seed Serena Williams at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
The Belgian world number one is chasing the one grand slam title she needs to complete her collection and looked in ominous form with a barrage of stunning backhand winners.
She now trails 6-5 in career meetings but appears to have the edge over the powerful American after also knocking her out in the quarterfinal at the French Open last month.
While that meeting in Paris was one-sided, this one was a real scrap despite Williams later proclaiming she was ”only 40% fit”.
Henin showed signs of nerves as she failed to close out the match at 5-1 and puffed out her cheeks with relief when Williams flapped a backhand over the baseline to end the contest.
”It’s been tough on the nerves today,” said 25-year-old who will face Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the last four.
”It was mentally a very difficult match.”
”At 5-3 I went to the net a couple of times. It didn’t really pay. Finally I could finish the match in that game because who knows what would happened if it was 5-4.”
Williams, who wore a strapping on the left calf she injured so dramatically against Daniela Hantuchova on Monday, said she was also troubled by a thumb injury.
”In my last match I fell and sprained my thumb so I couldn’t hit backhands,” Williams said.
‘Hurting bad’
”To be honest it was hurting so bad I didn’t practise yesterday … it was literally a last-minute decision to play.”
Despite her aches and pains Williams was far more competitive than in Paris where she subsided in straight sets without her usual fight.
There was nothing between the players for the first eight games but it was Williams who wavered at 4-4, dropping her serve when Henin played a delicate lob volley over her head.
The Belgian then served out a near-perfect set to take command of the match.
Williams, champion here in 2002 and 2003, hit back strongly to win the second set after a flurry of service breaks.
On set point at 5-3 she banged a serve past Henin down the middle and successfully won a Hawkeye challenge after it had wrongly been called out.
Henin, getting plenty of advice from her coach Carlos Rodriguez in the players’ box, blazed to a 5-1 lead in the decider with Williams looking flat-footed.
The American then threatened to mount a comeback before Henin regained her poise to move through to a semifinal with Bartoli.
Serena, however, is tipping her sister Venus to win the title for a fourth time.
”I think I saw the Wimbledon champion in a fourth round match today,” she said, referring to her older sister’s thrashing of second seed Maria Sharapova. – Reuters