Henin into quarter finals after titanic struggle

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE made it the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after she and Lindsay Davenport ran each other to a standstill in a whole-hearted and dramatic fourth-round match at the Rod Laver Arena.

In the end it was the Belgian, in obvious pain from cramps and blisters, who literally picked herself off the floor to find the crucial forehand that clinched the rollercoaster, three-and-a-quarter-hour encounter 7-5 5-7 9-7. Both exhausted players received a lengthy and deserved standing ovation from the 15,000 crowd who had sat enthralled as Davenport and then Henin-Hardenne fought back from the brink. "To win this kind of match is great because it's great for my experience, for my confidence," said the Belgian.

Henin-Hardenne is now up against unseeded Virginia Ruano Pascual in the last eight after the Spaniard reached only her second Grand Slam quarter-final but first since the 1995 French Open with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Denisa Chladkova.