Kournikova Bows to Henin (15/1/2002)

Anna Kournikova's Grand Slam drought continued today despite a strong second set fight back. The Russian bowed out in straight sets to No.6 seed Justin Henin in her round one match on the Vodafone Arena.

In her comeback to Grand Slam tennis since recovering from a foot injury, Kournikova was in trouble from the first game of the first set, broken by Henin in under two minutes. The young Belgian went on to take the set 6-2 in 34 minutes.

However, as the weather warmed up, so did Kournikova. Urged on by a near full house of fanatical admirers, she produced some sparkling passages of play, making Henin work hard to hold her serve in the second set, and finally achieving a break in game four.

Sensing a Kournikova comeback, Henin also stepped up a gear, breaking back and squaring the set at 3-3 one hour into the match. The set looked to be going to a tiebreak until a costly double fault from Kournikova allowed the 2001 Wimbledon finalist to seal a golden breakpoint opportunity and close out the match 6-2 7-5.

Despite her absence from the game Kournikova has lost none of the aura that surrounds her.

"It was a good and bad draw, I think, to play Kournikova," said Henin. "She hasn't played a lot of matches I think in the last month which was good, but I also played against a personality and the crowd loved that. Its always difficult when you are in front of her to give 100 per cent because you have to stay focused just on the match, and it wasn't easy all the time."

The path back from injury is never an easy one, but the Russian knows what she want she has to do.

"There are things that I've got to do to improve. I feel good physically and yeah, I have to play more matches, and become more comfortable on the court during the rallies and the important points. And that's what you lose when you don't play for a long time - that automatic decision making."

"I don't need to learn how to hit a ball, or to go and learn a new stroke. I just have to improve more with tactical things and be more comfortable and automatic on the court."

from ausopen.org