Medibank International Sydney Tennis - Australian Open Series

Henin claims third title

Friday 11 January 2008 Comments Off

The even years appear to be a good sign for Justine Henin at the Medibank International. She claimed her third title at this historic championship to go with those she won in 2004 and 2006.

 The world No.1’s 4-6 6-2 6-4 victory over world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova was her 40th career title and her 16th from 18 matches with the Russian.

“I think this was perfect,” said Henin. “I was starting to feel much better today, because Sveta, she played a great match I thought.   She was really intense and aggressive, didn’t do so much mistakes and really pushed me in my limits tonight.  That’s the kind of match that I really needed before the Open, so I’m glad about that.”

It was a high quality match as the two women battled it out from all parts of the court. In the early stages of the final set Kuznetsova was in a very strong position, she lead 3-0 and had another two break points at 15-40 but Henin was able to control her nerves and remained calm. She liofted her level when she realy needed to an when she was under pressure.

She said this was a match that gives confidence. She admitted to making some tactical mistakes but she corrected that and became more aggressive. Kuznetsova said errors were forced on her by the Belgian.

“I was not doing mistakes by myself,” said Kuznetsova. “She was pushing me to do them. She was aggressive. I had 3-Love, 15-40 in the third set and she served very well.  I mean, I didn’t do — she push me to do mistake. It’s not like I miss. I think it was a great game.�

“Maybe I had some chances and maybe sometimes I was aggressive, had to be a little bit more aggressive, but she definitely – she beat me or she played better maybe some moments. She has maybe more experience.  She played more better some important moments.”

Kuznetsova was obviously disappointed but she made it clear that the loss will not affect her confidence and she will only take positives away.

“I live a good life. I’m number two and I improve every day and I’m young. There is no taking my confidence away for sure,” said Kuznetsova.

The women’s doubles title was won by Zi Yan and Jei Zheng over Tatiana Perebiynis and Tatiana Poutchek 6-4 7-6.

It was eight years ago that the Medibank International last saw an all-unseeded men’s final. On that occasion it was Jason Stoltenberg who played a youngster with a lot of promise … one Lleyton Hewitt. This year Chris Guccione, armed with one of the most explosive games in the sport, takes on Dmitry Tursunov who has one of the most well rounded games in the sport.

Guccione is hoping to be the first Australian since Hewitt in 2005 to win the title and if he does he’ll be only the ninth different Aussie in the Open-era (since 1968) to hold this prestigious trophy. The last Russian meanwhile to reach the final was Igor Andreev in 2006, but if Tursunov goes on to win, he’ll be the first Russian to do so since Alex Metreveli in 1972.

Guccione continued his great run at the Medibank International by defeating Radek Stepanek 7-6, 3-6, 6-4. He said it was a very tough match and admitted that he struggled a bit compared to the way he played the previous round against Tomas Berdych when he saved a match point. However he hung in and took the opportunities at the end when they came his way.

“In the past when I beat like (Juan Carlos) Ferrero for the first time I think it dragged on a little bit with eh media and was just not focused enough for the next match,’ said Guccione. “That was a pretty bad performance. Just focusing on the next match now. There’s only one more match, so hopefully one more good performance.”

He said his results this week at the Medibank International have given him confidence and this is the “best start to the year”. The crowd also played a bit part in the victory and Guccione added that once they “get behind your back and it gets towards the end of the third it’s great to have them on your side”.

The match against Tursunov will be a first time meeting.

The Russian intimated that the warm conditions could have taken a bit out of him. He said he didn’t enjoy the sun but once the sun slipped low behind the roof line it became more bearable. He said physically, overall, it wasn’t that demanding. He made the point that playing someone like Santoro makes it very hard to play your best tennis.

“His strength is to make you play as badly as humanly possible,” said Tursunov, “but I played the key points well enough and I wasn’t trying to play outside my ability. Over all I’m pretty happy.”

The Russian was amused when asked about the Guccione serve. He said: “I’m pretty sure you’re aware that he’s got a good serve. That’s about all I can say about that. It’s going to be a difficult match and there’s going to be very little playing off groundstrokes. There’s going to be quite a bit of pressure on my serve.”

Tags: Chris Guccione, Dmitry Tursunov, Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova

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