Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the final on her first attempt Friday as she ended the unbeaten streak of Kim Clijsters 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 at the Eastbourne Championships. Defending champion Clijsters, seeded second to her Belgian compatriot's third, won the trophy a year ago on her debut at Devonshire Park.
The two-hour struggle between career-long rivals featured 11 breaks of serve, with treble Roland Garros champion Henin-Hardenne running away with the final set on the grass. As the winds died down on Friday, Henin-Hardenne picked up her game during her only pre-Wimbledon chance for grass training prior to Monday's start of the Grand Slam.
Henin-Hadenne now stands 11-10 against Clijsters, with two of their early matches played at the sub-WTA level. Henin-Hardenne will play for the title Saturday against one of a pair of Russian Grand Slam winners as Anastasia Myskina faced Svetlana Kuznetsova.
RESULTS (x denotes seed):
SEMI-FINALS: Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL x3) bt Kim Clijsters (BEL x2) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1; Anastasia Myskina (RUS x5) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x4) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
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