THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SYDNEY, Australia — Justine Henin won her 28th match in a row, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the Sydney International final Friday after falling behind 3-0 in the deciding set.
Henin lost her service without taking a point in the second game of the third set, but Kuznetsova did the same two games later to allow the Belgian player to pull back on serve at 3-3.
Henin broke Kuznetsova’s serve at 4-4 in the third set, then held serve and won on her first match point.
"This was perfect," Henin said. "Sveta played a great match … really intense and aggressive. That’s the kind of match that I really needed before the Open, so I’m glad about that."
Since winning her third straight French Open last year, her only loss in her past 44 matches was in the Wimbledon semifinals to Marion Bartoli of France.
It was her 16th win in 18 matches against Kuznetsova, giving the 25-year-old Belgian her third Sydney title.
"I’m not going to go count all 18 games I’ve played against her," Kuznetsova said. "Now we are much closer than before. I’ve been working hard."
The Belgian’s last loss was in the Wimbledon semifinals. Last year, she won the French Open and U.S. Open and returned to No. 1 in the rankings.
She’ll try to extend the streak to 29 in the first round of the Australian Open early next week when she plays Aiko Nakamura of Japan. Last year, Henin did not play in Melbourne due to the breakup of her marriage.
Earlier, Russian Dmitry Tursunov and Australian Chris Guccione advanced to the Sydney International men’s final on Friday.
Tursunov beat France’s Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 7-6 (4) while Guccione defeated the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.
It will be Guccione’s first ATP Tour final and his also his first match against Tursunov, the California-based Russian. It is the first Sydney men’s final since 2000 without seeded players.
"It’s the perfect start to the year really — confidence beating those top players and match practice before the Aussie Open," Guccione said. "I hung in there with my serve and took the opportunity at the end when it came."
Tursunov felt fortunate to have beaten Santoro.
"With a player like Fabrice, its very hard to play your best tennis," Tursunov said.
"His strength is to make you play as bad as humanly possible. With him you have just got to take a win in any way."
The Russian said he’s aware of the left-hander Guccione’s big service game.
"It’s expected that he’s going to cruise on his serve most of the games," Tursunov said. "I’m just going to have to try to guess a little bit and hopefully I get it right and connect with the ball."
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Baghdatis beats Gonzalez, advances to final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Marcos Baghdatis handled the heat, the wind and Fernando Gonzalez’s forehand on Friday. His next task: Stopping Andy Roddick from his third consecutive title at Kooyong — the Australian Open tuneup tournament.
The Australian Open starts Monday, but the 2006 runner-up wants only to concentrate on Roddick in Saturday’s Kooyong final.
Asked about an Australian Open draw that has him opening against 2002 champion Thomas Johansson and possible first-week matches against 2005 champion Marat Safin and Australian Lleyton Hewitt, Baghdatis said "I don’t want to know."
Baghdatis prevailed 6-2, 7-5 over Gonzalez, a finalist at last year’s Australian Open. The players were labouring in temperatures that reached 35 C Friday when the draw for the season’s first major was being made.
"I’ll see by myself later," he said, responding to questions about the Open. "I come here and try to win, for sure" against Roddick on Saturday.
"I’ll start thinking about the Aussie Open after the match."
Baghdatis beat Roddick in the fourth round at the Australian Open two years ago, but lost their past two encounters.
After peaking at a career-high No. 8 in the rankings in 2006, Baghdatis slipped to 16 last year. But he is concentrating more on fitness and consistency and aiming to get back into the Top 10.
"I have the game to beat anybody — I don’t want to have a big head — but I have, so I’ll just try to go on the court and find a solution to win," Baghdatis said.
Gonzalez’s Australian Open draw puts him on course to meet top-ranked Roger Federer — 27-1 in the past four years at the Australian Open — in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park.
He gets one more match at Kooyong on Saturday, playing for third place against Safin — the only man to beat Federer at the Australian Open in four years.
Baghdatis is glad to get match practice on the new Plexicushion surface at Kooyong, which is also being used for the first time at the Australian Open.
He only entered Kooyong as a late replacement for Federer, who withdrew from his regular Open warmup because of a serious stomach virus last weekend.
David Nalbandian and Tommy Haas also withdrew from the tournament, while No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko forfeited his second match because of the heat.
Davydenko recovered in time to beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-0, 7-6 (1) on Friday, when Britain’s Andy Murray beat Australia’s Brydan Klein 6-2, 7-6 (4).
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Daniilidou wins in walkover over Zvonareva
HOBART, Australia — Eleni Daniilidou’s first WTA Tour singles title since 2006 turned out to be her easiest when she won the Hobart International on Friday in a walkover.
Vera Zvonareva of Russia rolled her left ankle during a practice session about two hours before the scheduled start of the final at The Domain Tennis Centre and could not play, giving Greece’s No. 1 player her fifth singles championship.
Zvonareva will travel to Melbourne on Saturday for an MRI. Seeded 23rd in the Australian Open, Zvonareva is scheduled to take on Japan’s Ai Sugiyama in the first round at Melbourne Park early next week.
"I could barely walk," Zvonareva said. "It was painful right away and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to pack my bags and go home."
She said she had not thought about the Australian Open.
"I have no expectations at the moment," she said. "Hopefully it is not as bad as it looks right now."
When she did step on the court Friday, Daniilidou didn’t have as much success — she and Jasmin Woehr of Germany lost the doubles final 6-2, 6-4 to Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain.
Daniilidou advanced to the singles final by beating Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals while Zvonareva defeated American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad 6-2, 6-1.
Daniilidou will play Italian Tathiana Garbin in the first round of the Australian Open.