Top seed Justine Henin narrowly avoided one of the most embarrassing defeats of her career on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open.
The Belgian took two hours 28 minutes to beat 16-year-old Tamira Paszek 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 but faced defeat when the Austrian qualifier held a break point to lead 6-5 in the second set.
Henin survived that threat when 127th-ranked Paszek netted a forehand, and the holder then broke to take the set when Paszek made a backhand error.
After holding off a break point in the opening game of the third set, Henin broke Paszek to love to lead 2-0, and a further break for 5-1 left her serving for the match.
"I was pretty close to losing that match," Henin told reporters. "She played very well and I wasn't very comfortable on the court and was far away from my best level.
Until the final set, it was a wretched performance from the Belgian, who is still struggling to come to terms with the split from her husband last month.
She hit nine double-faults and for much of the first two sets Paszek had to do little more than defend well and wait for Henin to make the errors.
HARD WORK
"She doesn't have the kind of game that I like so much," added Henin. "Every ball is coming back in the court and she was running a lot and it was tough for me because I had to work very hard.
"I just kept a good attitude and that was the key for me today. She tried to take her chance and did it very well, and she pushed me far to my limits.
"But it was a good one to start. I probably need this kind of match right now and I'm very happy that I won this one and have another chance tomorrow."
Second seed Amelie Mauresmo of France followed her tournament win in Antwerp by easing past Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-2 while another Russian, third-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, had better luck in beating American Meghann Shaughnessy 6-1, 7-6.
Fourth seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland was stretched by Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, taking two hours 40 minutes to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, and fifth-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic overcame Italy's Mara Santangelo 6-3, 7-5.
Sixth seed Patty Schnyder and eight-seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova struggled for over two hours before winning.
Swiss left-hander Schnyder needed five match points to close out her 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Australia's Alicia Molik, and Hantuchova was stretched to the limit by Russia's Maria Kirilenko before edging through 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.
In another long struggle, Eleni Daniilidou of Greece took two hours 37 minutes to beat Japan's Ai Sugiyama 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
