MELBOURNE: Justine Henin continued to excel in her Grand Slam comeback with a 7-5, 7-6 (6) win over Elena Dementieva while US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro held off James Blake in a marathon five-setter Wednesday at the Australian Open.
Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Henin produced the biggest win of her comeback from 20 months in retirement with a 7-5, 7-6 (6) defeat of fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva in the night match on Rod Laver Arena, the center court.
Fourth-seeded del Potro beat his 30-year-old American rival 6-4, 6-7 (3), 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 in four hours, 17 minutes on Hisense Arena, the second showcourt at Melbourne Park.
The win for the unranked Henin was another step closer to a possible quarterfinal match against US Open champion Kim Clijsters, who scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand.
“It was very emotional for me on the court at the end because there was so much intensity,” Henin said.
“It’s magical to win this kind of match in this kind of atmosphere.” It was Clijsters’ US Open title only three tournaments back from two years in retirement that inspired Henin, her fellow Belgian, to return to the tour.
Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick had earlier continued their paths toward a possible semifinal matchup.
But the thread that ties Nadal and Roddick together from 2009 — Roger Federer, who beat Roddick in the semis last year before losing to Nadal in the final — will likely still have something to say about who the eventual champion is on Jan. 31. The top-seeeded Swiss star is on the other side of the draw and couldn’t meet either Nadal or Roddick until the final.
Nadal breezed to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 second-round win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia while Roddick was equally untroubled by his opponent in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci.
Britain’s Andy Murray, who could meet Nadal in the quarterfinals, advanced to the third round after beating Marc Gicquel of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. Murray is attempting to win his first Grand Slam title and become the first British man in more than 70 years to win a singles major.
No. 14 Marin Cilic, who ended French veteran Fabrice Santoro’s 70th Grand Slam campaign in the first round, rallied to beat local hope Bernard Tomic in five sets in a center court second-round match that finished after 2 a.m.
Del Potro, who beat Federer in last year’s US Open final, had a chance to serve for the match at 6-5 in the fifth after breaking Blake. However, Blake broke back immediately, helped by two errors from the 21-year-old Argentine.
Del Potro again broke Blake for a 9-8 lead and another chance to serve it out. He closed with a big serve out to Blake’s backhand side on his first match point.
Blake fell to 4-13 in five-set matches.
Del Potro has been bothered by tendinitis in his right wrist that first cropped up late last year and caused him to pull out of the semifinals of the Kooyong exhibition tournament last week.
The Hisense Arena crowd didn’t appreciate Roddick continuing the verbal jousting with Murphy after the match ended and booed the American.
The former No. 1-ranked Roddick took time to review video after the match, and was conciliatory in a news conference that followed.
Next up for the 26-year-old Clijsters will be No. 19 Nadia Petrova, one of the Russian women already into the third round along with French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, last year’s Australian Open runner-up Dinara Safina and Maria Kirilenko.
Third-ranked Kuznetsova beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-2 and No. 2 Safina had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Barbora Sahlavova Strycova.
