Henin vs Ivanovic in Brisbane Semifinals

Justine Henin will be playing against a former world #1 and grand slam champion when she meets Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals of the Brisbane Open, a tune-up tournament for the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open in Melbourne. In the quarterfinals, Henin needed to fight hard in beating Melinda Czink of Hungary, the world #37 in a third set tie-break. The final score was 62 36 76(5). The quarterfinals against Czink is Henin's third match back in the WTA tour after announcing her retirement in May 2008. She won her previous 2 matches in straight sets.

Ivanovic, who lost to Henin in the 2007 French Open final, saved a set point in the second set tie-break against talented Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before prevailing, 62 76(6). Ivanovic is trying to resurrect a career that saw her finish in the top5 in the world in 2007 and 2008, but fall to #22 by December 2009. Ivanovic is also the first Serbian to be ranked as #1 in the world after she won the French Open in 2008.

Ivanovic hasn't beaten Henin in their past 4 matches. She lost to Henin in straight sets in their first 3 matches, including the 2007 French Open final. She pushed Henin to three sets in the semifinals of their last match in the Sydney 2008 tournament when she was ranked #4 and Henin was #1. Ivanovic has won $7.2 million dollars in prize money as compared to Henin who has won $19.5 million dollars.

Expect the stadium to be filled when these two former top ranked women players take to court as they would like to start the year with a tournament win.