Sport World sport
The much-anticipated potential quarterfinal between the back-from-retirement Belgians dissolved in 52 minutes on Friday at the Australian Open.
That's the time it took for Kim Clijsters to lose, in embarrassing fashion, her third-round match at the season's first Grand Slam tournament.
The 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Nadia Petrova was the worst of Clijsters' career and as one-sided as the score indicated. Clijsters lost the first set in just 18 minutes and won only five points in her first seven games.
Justine Henin, another Belgian who was inspired to return to the tour following a 20-month absence after Clijsters won the U.S. Open.
Henin held up her end of the bargain. With some difficulty, she defeated Alisa Kleybanova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Henin's match today was her eighth since she returned from retirement, just long enough to expect better of herself as a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion.
Henin will play Yanina Wickmayer in the fourth round.
Wickmayer is ranked No. 16 but unseeded because she was under a suspension - since overturned - for breaching the World Anti-Doping Agency's "whereabouts rule." She advanced 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 against Sara Errani.
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