Clijsters out in 3rd-round shocker at Australian Open, leaving Belgium’s hopes riding on Henin

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Clijsters out, leaves Belgian hopes on Henin

MELBOURNE, Australia — Kim Clijsters came to the Australian Open as an inspiration to her countrywomen and mothers everywhere.

After her unexpected U.S. Open victory, hype about consecutive major titles followed her to Melbourne Park for the season-opening Grand Slam.

All that ended in 52 minutes Friday in a 6-0, 6-1 third-round loss to 19th-seeded Nadia Petrova. Also lost was the chance of a quarterfinal against fellow Belgian Justine Henin, a former No. 1 playing her first major in two years.

“I was completely off,” Clijsters said. “I think tennis-wise, I didn’t feel the ball at all.”

Defending champion Rafael Nadal also was upset with his game, although he had a victory to show for it — a 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 decision over Germany’s Philipp Kohlscreiber at night.

“In the third, I started terrible, no?” the Spaniard said. “Everybody has not very good days.”

No. 20 Mikhail Youzhny withdrew from the first scheduled match Saturday morning, citing wrist soreness, and giving Poland’s Lukasz Kubot a walkover into the fourth round. Youzhny, a semifinalist at the 2006 U.S. Open, said he hurt his right wrist in his opener against Richard Gasquet, when he rallied from two sets down to win in five.

In the early women’s matches, seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Italy’s Tathiana Garbin 6-0, 6-2, and No. 13 Sam Stosur of Australia had a 6-4, 6-1 win over Italian Alberta Brianti.

Top-ranked Roger Federer faced No. 31 Albert Montanes later Saturday, and 2008 winner Novak Djokovic was set to play Denis Istomin. Defending women’s champion Serena Williams was in third-round action against No. 32 Carla Suarez Navarro.

Juan Martin del Potro, who had a surprise win over Federer in the U.S. Open final last September, advanced Friday night along with No. 5 Andy Murray, Americans John Isner and Andy Roddick and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.

Nadal will next play Ivo Karlovic, who downed Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7), and could play a quarterfinal against Murray, a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Florent Serra of France.

But Murray has to first get past Isner, a 6-foot-9 American who won his first title last week in Auckland.

“I was just kind of riding a wave of momentum, and I still am,” Isner said after his 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win over No. 12 Gael Monfils. “Hopefully I can keep it going.”

No. 4 Del Potro beat Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, and No. 7 Roddick advanced 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) over Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

No. 2 Dinara Safina and No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova went through and will be part of two all-Russian women’s matches in the last 16. Belgians Henin and Yanina Wickmayer will vie for a place in the quarterfinals.

Kuznetsova, the French Open champion who no doubt expected to play Clijsters, is just happy to get a chance at fellow Russian Petrova after holding off Germany’s Angelique Kerber 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a match that ended at 1:43 a.m.

Petrova said she’d prepared for a long match and was stunned by how she dominated. Kuznetsova was equally impressed with Petrova, insisting there’s nothing predictable about women’s tennis.

Clijsters couldn’t get anything right. The reliable forehand wasn’t working, the serve was letting her down. The feet weren’t moving as they should.

“At some points I was just happy I was hitting a ball in,” she said. “That’s how bad it was.”

That might explain why she won only five points in the first seven games.

“There were points where I really wanted to break my racket into pieces,” she said, “but … that’s not going to help either.”

Henin was sitting out of a major for the seventh time when Clijsters won in New York last September. Watching the jubilant scenes of Clijsters and her toddler daughter, Jada, celebrating the championship at Flushing Meadows inspired Henin to come out of retirement herself.

Henin beat Clijsters in the finals of the French and U.S. Opens in 2003 and the 2004 Australian Open.

And then there was the prospect of a quarterfinal in Melbourne after Henin — unseeded and playing on a wild-card entry — landed in the same quarter as her old friend and rival.

Heightening expectations was the vintage finish to their first meeting post-retirement, when each had match points before Clijsters won the final of a warmup tournament at Brisbane in three sets on Jan. 9.

That rematch will have to wait. Henin found a way into the fourth round, coming back from a set and a break down in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alisa Kleybanova.

Wickmayer beat Sara Errani 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Wickmayer is ranked No. 16, but unseeded because she was under a suspension — since overturned — for breaching the World Anti-Doping Agency’s “whereabouts rule” when direct entries closed.

Clijsters will be concentrating on family matters Saturday, not tennis. Of course, she does hope a Belgian wins — even if she won’t say which one.

“This is something probably you want to forget as soon as possible,” she said. “I’m going to try to not let a match like this get me down or start doubting myself or anything.”