Henin struggles through

Justine Henin-Hardenne, semi-finalist and finalist in Wimbledon’s last two championships and currently champion of France, again had to rouse herself against an opponent of surprising quality to earn a passage into the third round.

The slim, 5ft 6in Belgian with the blistering backhand who is rated the best chance to disturb the power base that currently rules the game in the shape of the Williams sisters, had to struggle to justify her third seeding in a fiercely-fought opening set against Italian Flavia Pennetta.

But once Henin-Hardenne had nailed down that advantage by romping through a 7-2 tie-break, having had her serve broken three times, it was her cue to step up a gear and lay down a 7-6 6-1 result against an opponent who suddenly became massively disheartened.

The atmosphere on Centre Court was dead at the start, with gaps in the crowd after fans had gone to an early tea after watching Tim Henman’s win. There was also a blustery wind to make matters more difficult.

Henin-Hardenne laboured for 50 minutes to establish a real advantage.

The first three games of the opener went against the serve, she lost her own delivery three times and the thought occurred that the fingers on her left hand which she damaged in Holland last week were still hurting and inhibiting her ability to toss the ball high enough for her serve.

Finally she held for a 3-1 lead and all seemed well, but Pennetta – despite lacking a threatening service of her own – produced a consistent level of fast ground strokes to stretch her rival.

Henin-Hardenne looked good again when serving a love game for 4-4 and then immediately capturing Pennetta’s serve without conceding a point in the next game.

Yet the 21-year-old from Brindisi, having climbed to 55 in the world to make her senior Wimbledon debut after winning a few rounds in both Australia and France this year, came fighting back to break back again straight away.

And she had a set point on the Henin-Hardenne serve at 6-5 only to hit a forehand drive fractionally long.

The tie-break, however, finally showed a gulf in class. Henin-Hardenne, redoubling her determination, rattled through it with three quick mini-breaks and it set the trend for the second set.

That lasted just 22 minutes with Henin-Hardenne on top from the word go, going 5-0 up before Pennetta gamely pulled one back from love-30 down on her serve, only for an outrageously lucky net cord to help Henin-Hardenne re-establish command.