CLIJSTERS ROARS THROUGH

By Chris Davies
January 8 2003

Kim Clijsters made a promising start to her Australian Open preparations with a second-round victory over Swiss Number 2 Patty Schnyder in the Sydney International.

The number two seed, playing her first match after getting a bye in the first round, needed just 56 minutes to disbatch of her Swiss opponent 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Many players had to play through fierce heat and electrical storms which caused many trees to be uprooted and parts of Sydney homes to be blacked out.

"It's always tough in this heat, especially breathing," she said. "My lungs felt like they were boiling.

"But it's great to have these type of matches in this tournament, to get ready before Melbourne."

The Belgian has been in Australia since December training with her boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt in a bid to to improve her fitness ahead of next week's Australian Open.

Clijsters faces Chanda Rubin in the quarter-final after beating fellow American Alexandra Stevenson 6-1, 6-3.

Third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne opened her season with a 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Slovakian Janette Husarova in 52 minutes.

Henin playing in her first match since getting married to boyfriend Pierre-Yves Hardenne in November.

"It's the first tournament of the year and can be very hard to adapt to the heat," Henin said. "I didn't want to be out there too long."

Henin will meet South African veteran Amanda Coetzer, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Magdaleena Maleeva, in the last eight.

And Olga Barabanchschikova of Belarus will face Jennifer Capriati's conqueror Tatiana Panova in the quarter-finals after defeating Elena Bovina 7-6, 6-2.