Impressive Henin blasts her way into German Open tennis third round

By Ryland James AFP - Wednesday, May 7 05:32 pm

BERLIN (AFP) - World number one Justine Henin was pleased with her convincing performance to reach the third round here at the German Open with a straight sets win over Yung-Jan Chan in just under an hour.

On her last WTA appearance, Henin was hammered 6-2, 6-0 by Serena Williams during the quarter-finals of the Miami tournament last month which she admits dented her confidence, but she looked very sharp in Berlin.

The Belgian needed just 58 minutes and 50 seconds to see off Chan, 93rd in the world, from Chinese Taipei and after white-washing her opponent 6-0 in the first set, she had few problems to take the second 6-2.

"It was pretty quick and I was pleased to get a good win," said Henin. "It has almost been one year since I last played on clay and I want to keep that kind of intensity for the rest of the week. I had a break after Miami and I felt pretty good out there."

The 25-year-old Henin will now meet 13th seed Dinara Safine for a place in the last 16.

All four of the top seeds safely made it into the third round as last year's defeated finalist, and this year's third seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova sealed a 6-3, 6-2 win over Colombia's Catalina Castano.

Earlier, defending champion Ana Ivanovic admitted she would love to break Serena Williams' winning streak if the pair meet in the Berlin final.

Ivanovic made the third round with a straight sets win over lucky loser Akgul Amanmuradova, but the world number two is on the opposite side of the draw to both Williams and Henin.

Former world number one Williams picked up her sixteenth consecutive win here on Tuesday and Ivanoic says she would love to be the one to stop Williams.

"For sure, Serena is playing really well, she is on top of her game and 100 percent fit," said Ivanovic. "I didn't see her game on Tuesday, but I would love to play her."

Ivanovic had a tense opening period against Amanmuradova, ranked 65th in the world, but dominated the tie-break 7-0 and had few problems taking the second set 6-2.

Amanmuradova, from Uzbekistan, stepped in for Amelie Mauresmo late on Monday afternoon after the former world number one withdrew with a rib injury and the hard-hitting 23-year-old made the main draw as a lucky loser.

Ivanovic, 20, will now play Austria's Sybille Bammer in the third round. Earlier in the day, fourth seed Jelena Jankovic booked her place in the last 16 with a straight sets win over Shuai Peng from China.

Having shaded the first set 7-5, Jankovic, fifth in the world, then powered her way past her Chinese opponent 6-0 in the second.

She is now on course to meet 2006 champion Nadia Petrova in the third round if the Russian beats her compatriot Maria Kirilenko in her second round tie.

Sixth-seed Anna Chakvetadze made a second round exit when she was beaten by Bulgarian Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 in one of the few surprises of the day.

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