Australian Open Day Five: Kim Clijsters Battered, Justine Henin Advances

Kim Clijsters suffered the worst loss of her career on Friday in a 6-0, 6-1 mauling at the hands of third round opponent Nadia Petrova.

The No. 15 seed Clijsters, looking to put three Belgians into the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time following the earlier victories for Justine Henin and Yanina Wickmayer, looked lost against Petrova in an embarrassing defeat that lasted just 52 minutes.

The No. 19 seed Petrova raced through the first set in just 18 minutes. She dropped just one point on her serve, sat back and watched Clijsters hit error after error—17 in all. Clijsters struggled to win just one of 10 points of her second serve.

The second set was little different. Clijsters crafted just one break point opportunity and had no answer to Petrova’s aggressiveness. The Russian finished the match with 15 winners and 92 percent of points won on her first serve.

By contrast, Clijsters hit just five winners to 26 unforced errors and won just nine points on her first serve. Whichever way you dice it, it was a completely unexpected beating following her dramatic victory at the US Open and promising start to 2010.

Similarly, Petrova, once the world’s No. 3, has fallen almost outside the top 20. Her year got off to a less than spectacular start with first round losses in both Brisbane and Sydney.

Petrova will face Svetlana Kuznetsova in round four after the current No. 3 fought back from a set down to beat German Angelique Kerber 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

In a match that could have easily evaded the Russian, Kuznetsova grew as the match wore on. But even up a break in the third set serving at 4-3, Kuznetsova could not put the No. 118 Kerber to bed. Fortunately, she broke right back and was then able to serve out the match.

As the scoreline suggests, there was very little between the two women, regardless of the 115 ranking places between them. They both hit four more errors than winners, won 55 percent of points on their serve and played aggressive approach shots, which allowed them to make forays to the net.

Kerber, who turned 22 earlier this week, certainly played well enough to beat Kuznetsova. After winning three qualifying matches and beating the world No. 26 Aravane Rezai in the second round, the German was inches away from claiming her biggest scalp. Don’t expect her to stay outside the top 100 for too long.

While Clijsters stumbled for a crumb against Petrova, there is the guarantee of at least one Belgian in the quarterfinals. Justine Henin, who was given a wild card into the event, and Yanina Wickmayer, the world’s No. 15 who was forced to go through qualifying, both won their respective third round matches to set up an all-Belgian clash in round four.

I had billed them as the best two unseeded players in the draw, and they have not disappointed. Unfortunately, one of them will not make it into the last eight.

Wickmayer needed two hours and 42 minutes to defeat Italian Sara Errani 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-3, while Henin similarly needed three sets and more than two hours on court to dispatch No. 27 Alisa Kleybanova.

Wickmayer raced out to a 6-1 lead in the first set with little effort, and it looked as though the match would barely last an hour. She was too powerful for Errani and looked dominant both on serve and returning. Wickmayer hit 18 winners alone in the set.

The second set was a whole different proposition. Errani finally started going for her shots, and the women exchanged a number of grueling baseline rallies that concluded in a tiebreaker.

Wickmayer would not have welcomed the prospect of a third set, but Errani seemingly ran out of energy, while Wickmayer continued to swing away, make or miss. It proved to be good enough today, but she will need to show more staying power if she wants to hang with Henin on Sunday.

It almost looked as if Henin wasn’t going to make it into round four against Kleybanova, fighting from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Henin looked sloppy in the opening set, as if her near-three hour battle with Elena Dementieva had zapped every last bit of her energy, while the Russian looked strong and controlled, especially on serve.

But Henin showed that fighting resilience that has become her trademark, winning a narrow second set before racing away in the decider.

Elsewhere on day five at Melbourne Park, No. 2 seed Dinara Safina made light work of Britian's Elena Baltacha 6-1, 6-2 to book her place in the fourth round against Maria Kirilenko.

There was a lot of talk about whether Baltacha could trip up Safina, but those fears were swiftly dashed with a dominant victory in just 57 minutes.

Kirilenko will prove a more difficult proposition in the next round as she continues her strong run through the competition. Nobody really expected her to get this far, especially after being drawn against compatriot and No. 14 seed Maria Sharapova in the opening round. But Kirilenko followed up the win with a straight sets victory over Yvonne Meusburger and then beat Italian Roberta Vinci on Friday 7-5, 7-6(4)

In the final two matches of the day, No. 31 Alona Bondarenko upset No. 8 Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-3, and Jie Zheng came from a set down to beat No. 11 Marion Bartoli 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.

They will meet on Sunday for a place in the quarterfinals against either Safina or Kirilenko.

The third round will wrap up Saturday with the final eight matches, including four all-seed encounters.

World No. 1 and top seed Serena Williams will be in action against No. 32 Carla Suarez Navarro, and No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki will face off against No. 29 Shahar Peer. Daniela Hantuchova, the world’s No. 22, will meet No. 16 Na Li, while No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska will take on No. 17 Francesca Schiavone.

Both Aussies will also be in action. Sam Stosur will meet Alberta Brianti for a place in round four, possibly to face Serena, while Casey Dellacqua will look to keep her dreams alive against No. 6 seed Venus Williams.

No. 7 Victoria Azarenka will face Tathiana Garbin, and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva will play Argentine Gisela Dulko.