World number one Justine Henin brushed aside Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova to reach the semi-finals of the Eastbourne International grasscourt tournament on Thursday.
Henin, the defending champion at the Wimbledon warm-up event, won 6-2, 6-2 in 55 minutes.
Third seed Nadia Petrova joined Henin in the semi-finals, overcoming a back problem and leg cramps in the heat to beat Austrian ninth seed Sybille Bammer 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 in a match that lasted just under three hours.
Fifth seed Vaidisova, the youngest player in the draw at 18 and a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January, has a big serve but when that started to let her down she had no other weapons to use against the Belgian top seed.
She found herself 5-0 down within 20 minutes, having held only one game point.
Vaidisova broke Henin as the Belgian served for the first set at 5-1 up but then surrendered her next serve to love.
Henin, who went swiftly 5-2 up in the second set, piled on the pressure as she watched Vaidisova's serve become more erratic.
Though the Czech saved one match point she soon gave Henin a second chance thanks to a double fault, then put a backhand into the net to concede the match.
TITLE COLLECTION
French Open champion Henin, aiming to win Wimbledon to complete her collection of Grand Slam titles, will next play eighth seed Marion Bartoli of France, who thrashed Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-0 in 71 minutes.
Bartoli, inspired by another straight-sets defeat of Dementieva in the French Open third round earlier this month, put the Russian under relentless pressure from the start.
Dementieva, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, never looked comfortable, struggling to get her first serve in and hitting eight double faults.
Petrova had three bouts of medical treatment during her marathon against Bammer, for a back strain and thigh cramps.
World number 11 Petrova missed last year's grasscourt season with a hip injury but was a Wimbledon quarter-finalist two years ago.
She had chances to finish off her match against Bammer earlier, after going 5-1 up in the deciding set, but the Austrian, mother of a five-year-old daughter, saved two match points to hold serve.
Bammer then broke Petrova and held her own serve to pull back to 5-4 but the 24-year-old Muscovite clung on to reach a semi-final against either Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo or sixth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer.
© 2024 Rediff.com -