World No. 1 Justine Henin overcame another slow start against a pesky opponent before prevailing at the Rogers Cup Thursday.
The Belgian star, who won the event in 2003, defeated China's Shuai Peng 7-5, 6-2 in the third round of the women's tennis tournament in Toronto.
Justine Henin pumps her fist after defeating Shuai Peng at the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Thursday.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
"It was tough out there, I can tell you," said Henin, who improved to 40-4 on the season with the win.
Henin advances to the quarter-finals where she will meet No. 6 Nadia Petrova of Russia on Friday. Petrova defeated No. 10 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-4, 6-1 Thursday.
Henin, 25, trailed 3-1 in the opening set but eventually fought her way back into the contest, breaking Peng's serve to take a 6-5 lead and serving out to win the set.
Although Peng pushed Henin from the start of the second set, the top seed took control of the match, converting two break points to take a 3-0 advantage. Leading 5-2, the Belgian served out to win the match in one hour and 48 minutes.
Henin said she made some adjustments to deal with the windy conditions.
"When I had the wind behind me, it was tough to stay aggressive," she said. "I had the feeling the ball was flying a lot, so it's not easy. You just try to keep control and play maybe a little bit more in the middle of the court."
On Wednesday, Henin overcame a sluggish start to set down Andreja Klepac of Slovenia in her opening match of the tournament.
Henin could be in line to avenge her surprising loss to Marion Bartoli in the Wimbledon semis. One more win for each and they would play again in a semifinal on Saturday.
Bartoli, the No. 7 seed from France, outlasted No. 9 Dinara Safina of Russia in the final match on Thursday night.
Bartoli prevailed 6-2, 6-7, 6-0. Safina overcame lower back pain to win the second set in a 7-2 tiebreaker, but completely lost focus in a disastrous third.
Second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia easily dispatched No. 13 Sybille Bammer of Austria on Thursday evening.
Jankovic broke five times to win 6-2, 6-3, her fifth victory in six matches against her opponent.
Jankovic, 22, is far removed from a 2006 season that began with just one win in 11 matches. Since then, she has reached the semifinals of the U.S. and French Opens to move into the Top 10.
She will next face Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, who upset No. 11 Shahar Peer of Israel 6-4, 6-3.
In other action from Thursday, No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia cruised to victory over American Meghann Shaughnessy, 6-3, 6-2.
Also moving on to the quarter-finals is No. 12 Tatiana Golovin of France. Golovin defeated Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-0.
In a marathon match that lasted just over three hours, Chinese qualifier Zi Yan upset Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5) to book her spot in the final eight.
Yan, who entered the week ranked 169th in the world, upset defending Rogers Cup champion and No. 4 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia on Wednesday.
The semifinals go Saturday (CBC, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET) and the final is slated for Sunday (CBC, 2 p.m. ET).
With files from Canadian PressRelated
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