Henin advances; Williams sisters on semifinal collision course

MELBOURNE - Former No. 1-ranked Justine Henin reached the semifinals in her Grand Slam comeback, beating Nadia Petrova 7-6 (3), 7-5 today to take out the last seeded player in her half of the Australian Open draw.

Henin, unranked and playing on a wild-card entry at Melbourne Park, went down a break in the second set before finding the range with her powerful groundstrokes and winning seven of the next nine games to finish off No. 19-seeded Petrova.

"I just went for it with my heart. Finally I could make it, and I'm very happy," Henin said. "At the end I played much more aggressive tennis.

"I didn't want to go to the tiebreaker. I wanted to close out the match."

The 27-year-old Belgian beat Petrova on Jan. 4 at the Brisbane International in her first match back on tour after almost 20 months in retirement.

Henin reached the Brisbane final, where she lost in three sets to fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters. It was Clijsters' win at the U.S. Open last September, in the third tournament of a comeback from 2 years in retirement, which inspired seven-time Grand Slam winner Henin to return to the tour.

Now she's two wins from emulating Clijsters' triumphant Grand Slam comeback.

Henin retired suddenly in May 2008 while holding the No. 1 ranking and had not played at a major since losing in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Maria Sharapova at the 2008 Australian Open.

During today's match, Royal Australian Air Force fighter jets roared overhead, canons exploded and helicopters whirred past, all part of the celebrations for Australia Day.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams ended local hopes of breaking a three-decade drought at the Australian Open yesterday, the eve of the national holiday.

Federer beat former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 - his 15th straight win over the Australian - and defending champion Williams defeated No. 13 Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-2 in back-to-back fourth-round matches on Rod Laver Arena.

Serena and Venus Williams are each a win away of setting up a sisters semifinal.

Venus advanced with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Francesca Schiavone and will play No. 16 Li Na, who ousted U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3.

Serena, a four-time Australian Open champion, will play seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who won the last 10 games to beat No. 9 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.