ZURICH, 20 October 2003 — Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne overtook compatriot Kim Clijsters as the women’s world No. 1 when she thumped Yugoslav Jelena Dokic 6-0, 6-4 in the final of the Swisscom Challenge yesterday.
Henin-Hardenne was in a class of her own against world No. 25 Dokic, winning her eighth tournament in 17 this year.
The US and French Open champion missed out on the number one spot when she lost to Clijsters in the Filderstadt Grand Prix last weekend but made no mistake to become the second Belgian to hold the top spot.
“It is just an amazing feeling,” she said. “Now I am number one in the world it is just amazing because I did everything I could and it is a real achievement.
“I don’t realize right now that I am the 13th player on the WTA Tour to be number one. Tomorrow is going to be easier. Today I just tried to stay focused on the match and whatever I had to do was working good.
“I served unbelievably, like I never have in the past. You could finally see today the work I did in the last few months on my serve and that is so important because you can win easy points and gain so much confidence.”
Dokic, who had shown much improved form to defeat Clijsters in the semifinals, lost her opening service game to 15 and earned just three more points in the set after that.
Henin-Hardenne wrapped up the first set in 15 minutes, slamming down aces and dominating the net.
Dokic opened the second set by winning her first point in nine and went on to win the game with the help of a firm smash and some more confident groundstrokes.
She then took Henin-Hardenne to deuce and showed the battling qualities she had displayed in earlier rounds, but squandered three break points. Henin-Hardenne held on to win the game with a crisp volley.
The Belgian, with the prospect of the number one spot spurring her on, never looked in trouble and she secured the win when Dokic hit long.
“She served better than me and she was more solid than me,” said Dokic, who was in tears on court as she thanked her coach following a dismal slump over the past year.
Ferrero Makes Short
Work of Massu
In Madrid, Spanish top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero scored a crushing 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Nicolas Massu of Chile yesterday to win the Madrid Masters and strengthen his position as world number one.
Massu had been in exceptional form throughout the week, beating the likes of Gustavo Kuerten and Andy Roddick on his way to the final, but he was outplayed from first to last. Victory for Ferrero extended his lead over Roddick and Switzerland’s Roger Federer in the ATP entry list and took him ahead of the American in the ATP Champions Race with just three weeks to go in the season.
“Massu has improved a lot and I think he’s now among the best in the world,” a generous Ferrero said after clinching victory in two hours 30 minutes.
Ferrero broke Massu in his first service game and never looked back, reeling off a series of forehand winners to take the first set with real elan. Massu lost his first service game in the second set and Ferrero built on that 2-0 advantage to take it with a minimum of fuss. Ferrero repeated the trick in the third set, breaking early on, and extended his lead to 4-1 with another break.
Massu broke back for 2-4 and had a sniff of a chance to come back in game eight, with a couple of loose Ferrero serves handing the Chilean two break points at 15-40.
The Spaniard saved the first with impeccable court craft and a big serve dashed Massu hopes of taking the second.
Ferrero, by now in sensational form, broke Massu in the next game to complete victory, the Chilean putting a volley long on the first match-point.
