Henin battles stomach ache to win

Justine Henin-Hardenne has been laid low with a stomach upset and had to battle hard for her second round victory over Camille Pin in the Australian Open.

A bug has been doing the rounds and affected Greg Rusedski before his first round defeat yesterday, but Henin-Hardenne was able to see out the 6-1 6-4 win with relative comfort.

“I’ve not been feeling well for two or three days,” said the Belgian.

“I was feeling tired and out of energy. Maybe that is one reason that in the second set I wasn’t feeling great on court. I lost a little bit of concentration.

“I’m sure in 24 hours or two days, I will be better.

Henin-Hardenne will play 30th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova

Fifth seed Lindsay Davenport dropped the second set against plucky Emilie Loit, who gave Serena Williams a major scare last year, before closing out the win 6-3 3-6 6-0.

Greek 19th seed Elena Daniilidou recovered from a dropped first set to beat Zimbabwean Cara Black 3-6 6-0 6-1 and will play Italian qualifier Mara Santangelo after her victory over Barbara Schett.

There were also victories for seeds Vera Zvonareva (11) and Fabiola Zuluaga (31) but two more fell today, with Russian Elena Bovina (21) and Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva (24) both bowing out.

Bovina, who broke into the world top 20 for the first time last year, lost in straight sets to 20-year-old Claudine Schaul of Luxembourg playing only her second Grand Slam.

Schaul reached the third round at the US Open last November and matched that achievment here with a 6-4 6-3 victory.

Veteran Maleeva took the first set on a tie-break from unseeded Petra Mandula, but then succumbed as the Hungarian ran out a 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 6-3 victor.

Mandula will play Aniko Kapros, who yesterday beat 10th seeded Russian Nadia Petrova.