Henin Sinks Sharapova
Former champion Justine Henin-Hardenne went through to the Australian Open final after a hard fought 4-6 6-1 6-4 victory over Russia’s Maria Sharpova.
“We played a great match.” said Henin. “It’s been very intense physically, especially in the first set and at the end of the match.”
For Sharopva it was the second year in a row she has been defeated in the semis at Melbourne.
Sharapova later hit out at the media for focusing on her grunting to the exclusion of her tennis.
She told reporters: ” I know this is your job but take your notepads, take your pencils down, take your grunt-o-meters down, the fashion police, put it all away and just watch the match. ”
She added, ” For me to be able to go out there and play the quality of tennis that I did, I think was great. I know that probably I’m going to get headlines, you know, “Maria can’t get past the semis, Maria can’t finish it off in the third” but take all that away and just look at the tennis that we both played today. I think that shows a lot.”
Henin will now face Amelie Maurismo who came through to the final when Kim Clijsters was forced to retire during their semi final match.
Clijsters twisted her ankle midway through the third set and though she tried to continue retired after just one more point.
