World No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne opened her season with a 6-4, 6-1 victory Wednesday over Conchita Martinez in the Adidas International.

World No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne, favourite for next week's Australian Open, brushed aside Spaniard Conchita Martinez in her opening match at the Sydney International tournament 6-4, 6-1. [AFP]

The Belgian lost her opening serve and trailed 0-2 before she rallied to win the first set in 39 minutes in blustery conditions. She broke the Spaniard three times in the second set, and finished with 27 winners and 35 unforced errors.

Henin-Hardenne is seeded No. 1 in Sydney and for the Australian Open, which starts Monday at Melbourne Park.

On the men's side, former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt won nine consecutive games after trailing 0-4 in the first set to beat Slovakian Karol Kucera 6-4, 6-1 and clinch a quarterfinal berth against Frenchman Arnaud Clement, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Swedish qualifier Joachim Johansson.

Henin-Hardenne had a bye in the first round here and hadn't played on tour since her semifinal loss to Amelie Mauresmo at the WTA's season-ending championships in Los Angeles in November.

"I'm very happy to win my first match — it wasn't pretty, but the first match of the season is never easy," Henin-Hardenne said. "There were problems, but I can work on it for sure."

Henin-Hardenne said she'd been working on strength and conditioning over the break and concentrating on forming a charity for children with cancer to give her a focus outside of tennis.

Mauresmo and Lindsay Davenport, seeded third and fourth, also advanced to the quarterfinals.

Mauresmo beat Meghann Shaughnessy 6-2, 6-3, after wasting a match point on serve at 5-1 in the second set, and Davenport rallied for a 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Russia's Vera Zvonareva.

Japan's Ai Sugiyama, seeded eighth and winner at the Australian women's hardcourt championships on the Gold Coast last week, lost 6-2, 6-3 to Nathalie Dechy of France.

Their match was scheduled for the previous night but was rained out.

"I was playing really good last week, thought I was ready, but my footwork wasn't good enough and I wasn't fast enough today," said Sugiyama, who finished 2003 at No. 10.

Dechy returned later on the same court and lost 6-0, 6-4 to Italian Francesca Shiavone.

Also, sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva defeated Russian compatriot Elena Bovina 6-2, 6-3, and seventh-seeded Chanda Rubin of the United States beat Lina Krasnoroutskaya 7-5, 6-2.

Hewitt said he feels in top shape going into the Australian Open, particularly after his comeback in the first set against Kucera.

"I wasn't giving up that first set no matter what," the Australian said. "You enjoy it when you get out of jail like I did in that set."

With a 5-0 record this year, he'd need to extend his winning run to 15 matches to secure a Sydney-Melbourne double, but Hewitt said it wasn't beyond him.

Hewitt, the 2001 U.S. Open champion and 2002 Wimbledon winner, said he is eying the bigger picture.

"When you've won a Grand Slam, your priority is to win more of them," he said.

Spaniard Carlos Moya maintained his unbeaten start to the season with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Frenchman Michael Llodra.

Moya, seeded third here, won in Madras last week.

"The year so far has been perfect for me — seven matches and seven wins and I've got a title already," said the Spaniard, the highest-seeded player still in the men's tournament.

Dutchman Martin Verkerk overcame Max Mirnyi of Belarus after 39 games — the longest men's match in the tournament since 1990 — and won 6-7 (0), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5).

Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan was leading Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 4-1 in the third set when heavy rain halted play on Tuesday night. He returned to center court to wrap it up Wednesday 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, breaking Bjorkman's serve when play resumed.

Srichaphan was to face Spaniard Tommy Robredo later Wednesday in a second-round match, while Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis faced embattled Greg Rusedski.

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