The much anticipated Quarterfinal between Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin will not be happening, thanks to the aggressive play of Nadia Petrova, and a rather poor performance on the part of Clijsters. Petrova, seeded No. 19 beat the No. 15 seeded Clijsters in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1 in their third round match.
Clijsters had 26 unforced errors compared to just 10 by Petrova in Clijsters’ worst Australian Open outing since her 2000 debut. Petrova had 15 winners compared to just 5 for Clijsters. The first set took only 18 minutes and Clijsters won only five points.
After the match, Clijsters said: “I made all the mistakes and she didn’t really have to do much. She served really well and was aggressive in the rallies, but that’s because I let her play into the courts. I wasn’t feeling the ball well. It sucks. Everything I’ve been doing so far with my coach, my fitness coach, everything has been going really well. I’m going to try to not let a match like this get me down or start doubting myself or anything.”
Nadia’s take on the match went like this: “I was preparing myself already a long day, a long match. Might have been a three-setter. Just really wanted to give everything I could today. Very happy… When I broke her again in the second set, then I realized, ‘This is like a two-set match for me,’ and I just start cruising through it… I played very well. I didn’t give her chance for her to start playing her game. I really put pressure from the first point. I stayed close to the line. I was really observing her pace. Also coming up with the big shots. I made very difficult for her. She had to come up with something unbelievable.”
Petrova will now play Svetlana Kuznetsova, with the winner moving into the Quarterfinals to face the winner between Justine Henin and Yanina Wickmayer.
