Henin cruises through

Third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne held her concentration after witnessing the collapse of a ball girl to ease through to the fourth round.

The French Open champion was serving for the first set against Russian teenager Anna Chakvetadze and was just two points from winning it when play was suspended to enable the girl to be helped from Court Two after fainting in the sweltering heat.

It was only a minor distraction, however, as the world number three despatched the 19-year-old Chakvetadze 6-2 6-3 in just 66 minutes.

Henin-Hardenne, Wimbledon runner-up in 2001 and a semi-finalist in 2002 and 2003, has reached the last 16 for the loss of just nine games and will now play Daniela Hantuchova or Katarina Srebotnik for a place in the quarter-finals.

She had too much power and precision for her young opponent, the first of seven Russians competing in the third round.

Henin-Hardenne broke the young Russian in the third game after her opponent disputed a line call.

Chakvetadze, in her first meeting with the former world number one, was frequently close to tears and twice flung her racket to the ground as she sense the set slipping away from her.

She was broken again in the seventh game as the Belgian wrapped up the first set in 30 minutes.

The youngster again revealed chinks of weakness in her temperament as she let slip a 30-0 lead and double-faulted at break point to lose the opening game of the second set.

As the winners were fired past her at regular intervals, the young Russian increasingly looked to her entourage for help but she could not take advantage of two double faults by her opponent in the next game.

She dropped her serve once more to give Henin-Hardenne the chance to serve for the match at 5-2 but the third seed produced an erratic game to miss the first opportunity.

A lucky net cord gave her another chance on Chakvetadze’s serve and she pounced to wrap up the match.