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Henin ends Russian monopoly in Doha with 6-4, 6-2 win

Top seed Justine Henin of Belgium won the Qatar Open on Saturday with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 win over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova to complete a Gulf double after winning the Dubai Open last weekend.

In the process Henin broke a four-year Russian monopoly in Qatar which began in 2003 when Anastasia Myskina won the title.

Myskina successfully defended her crown in 2004 after which Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova laid siege to the title in 2005 and last year respectively.

Henin said she felt proud having come back strongly after her personal troubles earlier this year.

"I never lost my tennis," she said. "All I needed was to get my confidence back and I am proud of the way I did that. I needed to move forward and know who I am."

She said she felt at ease now that she has won two titles from her three tournaments this year -- reaching the semi-finals in Paris before winning back-to-back tournaments at Dubai and now Doha.

"Paris was emotionally very hard, but now I am pretty relaxed," she said.

Henin said winning the Doha event gave her a lot of satisfaction.

"I like to win titles I have not won before. I like the Gulf. Dubai is like a home. I have lots of friends among the Belgians who live there. I like the stadium in Doha. It's pretty relaxed here," she said.

Henin took time to settle down early in the match when Kuznetsova took a 4-2 lead in the first set with a break in the sixth game in which the Belgian served poorly.

But it took no time to find her groove as she took advantage of two double faults by Kuznetsova in the next game and blasted a sizzling backhand down the line shot to break back.

Henin began the next game with a cracking ace and then repeated the shot to draw 4-4 and put the Russian under pressure.

The eighth game rattled Kuznetsova so much that she struggled with her serve in the next with the result that Henin won it comfortably to take a 5-4 lead and then held serve.

Henin quickly established her supremacy in the second set, breaking her rival in the first game and had further breaks in the fifth and seventh games before serving out the match.
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