By DPA
Stuttgart (Germany) : World No.1 Justine Henin survived a big scare when she edged Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4 for a place in the semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Henin threw away a 5-0 lead before saving the first set in the 10th game on a Dementieva double fault Friday. In the second, she allowed Dementieva to close from 5-2 to 5-4 before winning in one hour 32 minutes.
“I lost a little intensity in both sets. If you give her a little she takes it all,” said Henin after her ninth win in the 11th match with Dementieva.
In the semis, Henin will face Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, who did not have to play a full match because her opponent, the seventh-seeded Russian title holder Nadia Petrova, retired with a left hip strain at 6-7 (5-7), 5-1.
World No.2, Svetlana Kuznetosva of Russia delighted in her first career win in three matches over six seed Serena Williams of the US, 6-3, 6-3, in just 70 minutes.
“I was really pumped up and played well,” said Kuznetsova, who now meets the 2006 runner-up Tatiana Golovin of France, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko.
Henin, a two-time tournament runner-up, saved break points in the opening game as she roared off to a commanding 5-0 lead. The unseeded Dementieva fought back to 5-4 and served for 5-5, only to gift Henin the set with an unforced error and a double fault.
In the second, Henin won four games in a row from a break down at 1-0. But again she faltered, failing to serve out the match at 5-3. But she wrapped up matters in the next game with a forehand winner.
“She is a good fighter and I experienced that again today,” said the French and US Open champion Henin, after her ninth win in the 11th match with Dementieva.
It was announced later Friday that Henin would not play next week in Moscow as a precautionary move in connection with an inflamed shoulder. She did not mention the problem Friday in Stuttgart.
Earlier, Petrova won the first set against Jankovic in the tiebreak but the hip injury she first sustained at the recent US Open than got worse again. Petrova underwent courtside treatment trailing 3-0 and was forced to end the match four games later, after 1:21 hours of play.
“I am disappointed. I hoped I could have done really well here. The injury hasn’t healed properly. I was not quite ready to play matches like today. It is really frustrating to walk off like this,” said Petrova.
Jankovic said: “I thought she would continue but I know how it feels to play with pain. We played a tough first set, we hit hard left and right.”
Looking ahead at her match with Henin whom she has never beaten in seven previous meetings, Jankovic said: “I will go after her. I have nothing to lose.”