SYDNEY (AFP) — World number one Justine Henin captured her 40th career title and strengthened her Australian Open claims with a quality three-set victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Sydney International on Friday.
The tenacious Belgian fought back from dropping the opening set to down her closest ranking rival, the second-seeded Russian, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in 2 hours 18 minutes.
It was Henin's third Sydney title, having won here previously against Amelie Mauresmo in 2004 and Francesca Schiavone in 2006, and stretched her winning streak to 28 matches.
Henin's last defeat was her shock semi-final loss to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon back in July.
The win, coming just days before the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne, also extended Henin's advantage over Kuznetsova to 16-2 in career match-ups.
Henin has now won all her six WTA finals against the world number two.
"It was perfect preparation for the Open. I was starting to feel much better today and she really pushed me to my limits," Henin said.
"It was good to see how I dealt with the nerves tonight because I was in a pretty bad situation in the third set but I remained very calm and I played my best tennis when I was under pressure."
Kuznetsova only saw positives out of defeat to the world number one.
"This is the best year I've started so far, but it's only the first tournament. I'm really happy about being in the final and playing Justine," she said.
"I'm definitely disappointed about losing but I have to take out the positive things, the negative things just bring you down."
Henin's victory came despite struggling on her serve with nine double-faults and three service breaks.
But she rose to Kuznetsova's challenge and played her best tennis deep in the final set, breaking the Russian's serve twice to surge home.
Henin was hesitant on her serve and was broken in the fourth game of the opening set but hit back, breaking Kuznetsova to love in the seventh game.
The top seed again had trouble on serve and a double-fault brought up two set points.
She saved one with a rasping cross-court forehand volley but then netted a backhand to hand the Russian the opening set in 42 minutes.
Henin hit back straight away, breaking the second seed in the opening game of the second set and again in the seventh game, levelling the final after 80 minutes.
Henin's service again came under pressure in the final set, dropping her opening service game to love and having a fight to hold on to her next one.
But she broke Kuznetsova to love in the fifth game and hit some great forehands to level at 3-3.
Henin fought off two break points on her service in the eighth game before breaking Kuznetsova with a terrific low forehand.
She served out for the match, winning when Kuznetsova's forehand went long.
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