Henin marches on as Safina tumbles out

AN EMOTIONAL Justine Henin came through a tricky first-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova as she returned to Roland Garros for the first time since winning her third successive French Open title in 2007.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th May 2010, 22:14 BST
Updated 25th May 2010, 22:20 BST

The four-time champion showed only glimpses of her scintillating best on Philippe Chatrier Court and struggled on serve throughout. But she did enough to seal a 6-4 6-3 victory in one hour 29 minutes and set up a second-round meeting with Klara Zakopalova.

Former world No 1 Henin, who decided to end her 16-month retirement in September last year, was technically on a 21-match winning streak at Roland Garros, having not lost there since 2004. The Belgian had also won her previous 35 sets in the tournament, a statistic she had more than a little difficulty extending to 37 yesterday.

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Meanwhile, the biggest upset of the tournament so far came when Dinara Safina, runner-up for the last two years and the former world No 1, fell apart against 39-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm to lose 3-6 6-4 7-5 in an extraordinary two-hour 34-minute saga.

Multiple grand slam semi- finalist Date-Krumm, who had been retired for 12 years before returning to the circuit two years ago, burst into tears after recording her first win in a major for 14 years.