Top Seed Kim Clijsters Advances, Justine Henin in Action Wednesday: WTA

Top seed Kim Clijsters made light work of second-round opponent Alicia Molik at the Brisbane International on Tuesday as she advanced to the quarter finals with a comfortable 6-0, 6-3 victory.

The Australian wildcard entrant—making a comeback to the WTA tour herself—provided little resolve against world No. 18 Clijsters, as the Belgian sped through the first eight games of the contest to take a commanding 6-0, 2-0 lead.

Molik never really got into the game, constantly facing a barrage of break points on her serve and failing to make a dent on her opponent’s.

The match lasted just an hour and kept Clijsters on pace to possibly meet Justine Henin in the final. The top seed will likely face Aleksandra Wozniak on Thursday, assuming the Canadian gets past Lucie Safarova in round two tomorrow.

Third seed Ana Ivanovic faced a scare before seeing off unseeded Timea Bacsinszky from Switzerland, and No. 7 Melinda Czink needed to go the distance for the second time in three days to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

Ivanovic swept through the first set of her second round encounter 6-2 before being broken twice in the second set by Bacsinszky.

But the 22-year-old from Belgrade dug deep in the decider to book a quarter final matchup against either Roberta Vinci from Italy or former junior world No. 1, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Czink had a similar fright in the middle of her match, dropping the second set 6-2 before finally racing away to a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 victory in just under two hours.

It means that Czink has gone one round better than last year when, as a qualifier, she got knocked out by No. 3 Marion Bartoli. It also sets up the prospect of a quarter final encounter with Justine Henin who she has never played before.

In Tuesday’s early match, Andrea Petkovia came from a set behind to defeat American Vania King 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Wednesday’s order of play will see No. 4 seed Daniela Hantuchova take on Agnes Szavay on the Pat Rafter Arena and sixth-ranked Aleksandra Wozniak in action against Lucie Safarova.

Most of the attention on the women’s side of the draw, however, will go to Henin’s match in the evening against Sesil Karatantcheva to see if she can maintain the form she displayed against Nadia Petrova in her comeback on Monday.

Around the WTA

In Auckland at the ASB Classic, seeds Francesca Schiavone (No. 4), Virginie Razzano (No. 5), and Elena Vesnina (No. 6) all made it through safely to the second round, while No. 2 Na Li crashed out in straight sets.

Li dropped serve in six of her eight service games against Kaia Kanepi—crumbling 6-1, 6-3 in just 66 minutes against the world’s No. 58.

While Schiavone faced just one break point against Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France in a straight sets victory two-and-three, Razzano made much harder work of Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu.

Razzano took more than two hours to secure her place in round two, where she will face wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm.

It was more straight forward for Vesnina as her erratic serve carried her to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Alberta Brianti. The Russian mixed in nine aces with eight double faults but she played the big points well when it mattered, saving all seven break points she faced. Her reward is a date with Alize Cornet in round two on Thursday.

With both Li and Anabel Medina Garrigues out in the first round, the bottom half of the draw is now wide open for No. 3 Yanina Wickmayer or Razzano to advance to the finals.

Elsewhere, Carla Suarez Navarro beat qualifier Edina Gallovits 6-4, 7-5; Sania Mirza defeated Stefanie Voegele 7-5 in the third; and Cornet beat Marina Erakovic four-and-three.

British qualifier Elena Baltacha went down 6-2, 6-2 to Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru; Shahar Peer edged out Polona Hercog 7-5, 6-3; and Maria Kirilenko dispatched Tatjana Malek of Germany 6-2, 6-3.