Justine Henin is through to the quarter-finals of the WTA Medibank International without having to hit a single ball in Sydney.
World number one denied match practice by injury to Safarova
Justine Henin reached the quarter-finals of the WTA Medibank International without even having to hit a ball.
The Belgian was due to face Lucie Safarova in her opening match in the tournament but her opponent withdrew through injury.
It means the current world number one, who has won the event twice before, has reached the last eight without playing a match.
As one of the top four seeds, Henin received a bye through to the second round in Sydney.
She will now only play a maximum of three more matches before the start of the first Grand Slam event of the season, the Australian Open, next Monday.
Seeds advance
Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced, the Russian seeing off the challenge of Shahar Peer 6-3 6-4.
Her next opponent will be Francesca Schiavone after the Italian upset seventh-seeded Marion Bartoli 2-6 6-3 6-2.
Ana Ivanovic was another player who needed three sets, the fourth seed being pushed all the way by Virginie Razzano.
The Serb looked to be cruising when she raced to a 6-1 victory in the opening set, only for her opponent to level matters by taking the next 6-2.
After two one-sided sets the decider was much tighter, Ivanovic eventually taking it 7-5 to set up a quarter-final clash with Katarina Srebotnik.
Ivanovic praised her coach for helping turn things around when 5-3 down in the final set.
She said: "I raised my game a little bit in the third set. I was a little bit nervous and anxious so I just looked for someone to calm me down and say, 'Okay, you're doing the right things, keep playing the same way'.
"He helped me a lot to calm down and to assure me that I was still doing the right thing."
