Still quite fresh out of retirement, Justine Henin of Belgium continued her dominance over No. 6 ranked Elena Dementieva of Russia in the 2nd round of the 2010 WTA Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, USA. It was a convincing straight sets pounding, 6-3, 6-2.
Henin didn’t even concede a break point in the first set and broke three times in the second to win in a little under 90 minutes.
Henin came into the tournament as a wildcard, playing in her first Sony Ericsson Open since coming out of retirement this year.
Henin and Dementieva go way back. Henin has come out of retirement this season aiming to win at Wimbledon, the only major that has eluded her in her career. Dementieva, an Olympic gold medalist, doesn’t want to quit until she’s won her first Grand Slam event. This early round meeting between these two competitive players is due to the fact that Henin is still making her way up into the rankings, and even though she has already made her way up to 33rd, it still isn’t high enough to earn a seed in the tournament.
Before the early round tough match up, the players had this to say: “I love this kind of situation because I know I’ll have to give my best and to play my best,” said unseeded Henin. The fifth-seeded Dementieva refused to characterize her draw as a bad roll of the dice. “If you’re coming to the tournament and you want to win, you have to beat everyone,” she said quietly. She’s probably wishing now that the dice had rolled another way.
Henin now leads the 9-year head-to-head series versus Dementieva, 13-2. Henin won their last meeting at the 2010 Australian Open in a close thriller, 7-5 7-6(6).
Henin’s compatriot Kim Clijsters, seeded 14, enjoyed an even easier day’s work as she cruised to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova.
