French Open smiles on Pierce and Henin-Hardenne

PARIS, Wednesday (AFP) - As the two former winners left in the tournament, Mary Pierce and Justine Henin-Hardenne will be hot favourites in Thursday's French Open women's semi-finals to make it a first ever Franco-Belgian final.

Two of the lesser-known Russians stand in the way. Henin-Hardenne, the 2003 winner takes on Nadia Petrova who at 22 has yet to win a WTA tournament. Pierce, the champion in 2000, goes up against Elena Likhovtseva who at 29 will make her first ever appearance in a Grand Slam semi-final.

Both Henin-Hardenne and Pierce have overcome adversity to claw their way back into contention. The Belgian, who turns 23 on Wednesday, missed most of last year through a debilitating viral condition and then fractured her kneecap when she attempted to return too quickly in January.

When she did eventually get back into action, it was in spectacular fashion winning three claycourt tournaments and 17 matches in a row before Roland Garros. But persistent lower back pain has meant that she has had to grit her teeth and get on with it in Paris, notably saving two match points against Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova in a fourth round marathon.

There were no signs of that, however, when she thumped second-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia in the quarter-finals.

Her opponent Petrova has also suffered a succession of injuries since she reached the semi-finals here two years ago, but Henin-Hardenne says the Russian is currently playing her best ever tennis.

"She is playing great claycourt tennis right now and is full of confidence," she said. "It's going to be another kind of match from the one we had in Berlin a few weeks ago when I won in three close sets." Petrova is aware that she does not have a good record against the Belgian winning only once in seven attempts, but she insists she has a chance of getting to the final.

"I feel like I am on the same level to compete with anyone at the moment," she said. "I have more experience and more self belief."

Pierce suffered a long period in the wilderness with injuries and weight problems that saw her form and her ranking tumble. But she gathered her forces during last winter to have a big push at getting back to the top of the game and her efforts have finally paid dividends in her adopted home city.

Big wins over top tenners Svetlana Kuznetsova and Patty Schnyder cleared the way for her demolition of top seed and world No.1 Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-finals and Pierce can count on big home support in her bid for a third Grand Slam title. She says that she is more relaxed and enjoying the game more than at any time since she made her debut as a gangly teenager in 1990, and despite a nagging thigh muscle injury, she is injury-free.

"I didn't know that I was going to come this far but I always believed in it," she said. "This is tennis, you never know what to expect. I really take it one day at a time. I give out as much as I can and I enjoy."

Likhovtseva admits that she "won ugly" in her quarter-final against 15-year-old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva and that she is very much in the shadow of her better-known and more glamorous compatriots such as Sharapova and last year's French Open winner Anastasia Myskina.

"But I don't really care about that," she said. "I've had some wins against Mary, although I lost to her the last time. I know how I'm going to play her".