Justine Henin, relishing the pressure on her to keep her number one world ranking, swept through to the semi-finals at the Sydney International to line up an exciting clash against world number four Ana Ivanovic.
The Belgian seven-time Grand Slam champion took 52 minutes to thrash Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-0 to set up a Thursday showdown with the big-hitting Serbian.
Ivanovic kept her part of the bargain, spending almost two hours on court under a hot sun to see off Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova will face either world number three Jelena Jankovic or Czech Nicole Vaidisova in the other semi-final. They play each other Wednesday evening.
Henin is favourite to win the Australian Open, which gets underway in Melbourne on Monday.
‘I'm number one in the world and I can understand everyone seeing me as the favourite, but I can tell you that every time I wake up I know that anything can happen and I try to do the best I can,’ Henin said.
‘I'm really focused and I just try to be well prepared. A Grand Slam is long, there are seven matches and you need to be strong, mentally, physically; you need a little bit of luck.’
Henin acknowledged her opponents up their game when they play her.
‘I can feel it, they always have a better level which is interesting and very exciting for me because it's always a good challenge to keep my ranking and to improve.’
Henin will face a well-prepared Ivanovic, who has been practising in Sydney for almost a month.
‘I've definitely had a good preparation and I'm really happy that I've won the last couple of matches and had a chance to slowly get into it,’ Ivanovic said after beating Srebotnik.
