Henin reigns in Australia

Justine Henin overcame early nerves to triumph

Belgian teenager Justine Henin overpowered Silvia Farina Elia to claim her second career title at the Australian Women's Hardcourt Tennis Championship on Saturday.

The diminutive 18-year-old, whose only other WTA tournament win was at Antwerp in 1999, struggled in the opening games but eventually beat the unseeded Italian 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in 85 minutes.

Farina Elia has never won a WTA tournament before but looked to be on her way to her first title after racing to a 4-1 lead in the opening set.

Henin seemed affected by early nerves but soon found her range and broke Farina Elia to serve twice for the set before being forced to a tiebreak.

A happy victor

She fought back from 4-1 down in the tiebreak to level at 5-5 but an ace and a forehand winner helped her to take the set.

Henin never looked back in the second set and strolled to a comfortable win.

Henin was delighted with her victory and will now play next week's Canberra international before heading to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

"It is a long way to the top 10 and I think I have the time to get there but I have a lot of work to do," Henin said.

The defeated Elia had nothing but compliments for Henin.

"She has the stroke and the game to be there and it is just a matter of more tournaments," she said.