Former world No. 1 Justine Henin continued her fairytale comeback with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round of singles at the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Belgian, a dangerous wildcard entry at the desert venue where she won the women’s title in 2004, broke her opponent twice in each set to triumph in 68 minutes.
Henin sealed victory with a powerful first serve that forced a wide return by Rybarikova and the Belgian then waved in celebration to the stadium crowd at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
“It’s a great feeling,” a smiling Henin told reporters after booking her place in the next round against 31st-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina. “It’s a tournament I like a lot and I won here six years ago. It seems like a long time ago.”
“I was glad with the way I won my match today. Not everything was perfect but generally I found a pretty good rhythm and I felt I could go a lot to the net. It was great to meet with the fans again here at Indian Wells. I have a lot of good memories from the past,” she said.
Henin has reached successive finals since returning to the circuit in January after quitting the game in 2008 and she totally outclassed her opponent on a sunny afternoon.
Wearing a pink outfit, the Belgian broke Rybarikova in the first and third games of the match to sweep through the opening set in 36 minutes.
Showing no signs of rust in her first match since losing to American Serena Williams in the Australian Open final in late January, Henin broke the Slovakian’s serve twice more early in the second set to coast to victory.
Although she played well, she believes it will take her another couple of months before she reaches her top level physically.
“I still need a few more tournaments,” Henin said. “In Australia I proved to myself that I could make it, that I didn’t really need a lot of competition to be at a pretty good level. But I see further than that and with the French Open and Wimbledon, I hope at that time I can be at my best level and in good shape to perform really well.”
A seven-time grand slam champion, the Belgian will not earn WTA ranking points until the end of the Indian Wells tournament but she lurks as a dangerous threat to all of her opponents.
Should Henin advance to the third round, she is likely to face fifth seed Agneiszka Radwanska of Poland while fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva is also in her quarter of the draw.
In other first-round matches on Wednesday, Swiss Patty Schnyder brushed past Italy’s Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-2 and Russian Vera Dushevina crushed Australian Jelena Dokic 6-0, 6-3.
There was a distinctly Taiwanese feel to the women’s doubles first round clash between Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie, and Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei. China’s Zheng — the only non-Taiwanese on court — and Chan emerged victorious, downing the No. 7 seeds 6-3, 6-3.
In the second round of the men’s singles qualifying tournament, Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan defeated world No. 178 Jesse Witten of the US 6-2, 6-1 to make the main draw.
Lu downed US wildcard Roman Borvanov 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying and now faces 78th-ranked Oscar Hernandez of Spain. The winner will face No. 7 seed Andy Roddick.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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