Justine Henin-Hardenne moved to within one victory of concluding her French Open build-up by winning three clay court titles in a row here on Saturday at the WTA German Open. The former triple Grand Slam titleholder did that with a rampaging 6-0, 6-1 win over Patty Schnyder, the seventh-seeded Swiss player, which carried her to the final of the German Open. Henin, whose career was threatened by a persistent virus during seven months away from the game, has won Charleston and Warsaw in the two months since she returned to the WTA Tour and if she wins the title today she will achieve something which has not been done for a decade.
The last woman to capture three successive titles or more in the French Open build-up was Conchita Martinez, the former Wimbledon champion, who won four in 1995.
"I played a very solid match and I am very pleased," said Henin.
"Against Patty Schnyder you have to stay aggressive all the time. If I play one millimetre from my best it will be another match entirely. "I was going for the corners and making winners and it was very good."
Henin's form must make her unofficial favourite for Roland Garros. She was outstanding during her straight sets victory over top-seeded Maria Sharapova on Friday and if anything was better still on Saturday.
The match was played almost throughout in slight drizzle, and the grey, heavy conditions which were unpleasant for almost everyone, actually appeared ideal for Henin.
The brilliant Belgian was given more time in which to prepare, making available for her an even wider arsenal of attacking strokes than usual, and resulting in a torrent of multi-layered attacks which swept Schnyder aside.
"It's better that you just accept the conditions," said Henin, obliquely referring to Schnyder's difficulties with them.
"Of course it's better to play tennis in nice sunny conditions, but the conditions were probably worse for the spectators than the players." Schnyder had previously got past Miami and Indian Wells champion Kim Clijsters and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, but now against the inspired Henin she lasted only 51 minutes.
Schnyder had a point to hold serve in the first game, which Henin saved with a trademark backhand topspin drive down the line for a winner which landed right in the corner, and this seemed to jerk Henin into over-drive.
That resulted in one-way traffic.
A similar backhand, racing parallel to the sideline before thumping into the backstop, got Henin a second break of serve, and the third came with an audacious drop-shot from drop-shot winner, which tickled the tape on the way over and landed unstoppably within 18 inches of the net.
Schnyder missed a chance of making a drive kill from inside the service line in the sixth game, over-hitting and as she did so almost hitting Henin in the forecourt, an incident which caused the Belgian to glare.
Two games later in another forecourt exchange, Henin had a similar chance to put the ball away and succeeded, making Schnyder duck in the process.
Schnyder's last slight chance of getting back into the match came when she got to love-40 on Henin's serve at 4-1 but the former world number one responded with a sequence of net attacks - a more common ploy since she returned from her virus - and a hiccup was quickly averted. It was still drizzling at the end of a miserable experience which Schnyder would have liked to avoid by delaying the match until the weather improved.
"They still do whatever they want so there is not point in arguing," she said.
"I argued last night in our doubles match and they made us play for ever, so I wasn't into arguing."
RESULTS (x denotes seed):
(Semi-finals): Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL x12) bt Patty Schnyder (SUI x7) 6-0, 6-1.
(Quarter-finals): Jelena Jankovic (SEM x13) bt Elena Bovina (RUS x8) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
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