Happy Henin on a roll

There's more to clay-court tennis than hitting the ball harder than your opponent. The red stuff affords scope for artistry to be the key component, as the stylish Justine Henin emphasised in going through to second successive final by beating her Belgian compatriot Kim Clijsters 7-5 6-2 in the Italian Open semis.

Last week's German Open champion eclipsed the 2001 French Open runner-up despite playing with a heavily strapped left thigh. Her all-court game is based on the effectiveness of her single-fisted backhand, which for the purists is a joy to behold. By contrast Clijsters relies on clubbing consistency and it appeared she was sharing the same radar as Heathrow air traffic control in this match, as her game never left the runway.

Clijsters had her chances in the first set but never showed conviction to suggest she would build on two successive straight sets wins in her most recent contests with her domestic rival. Even so Henin needed to play catch-up to secure a first set that steadily improved from an unpromising start.

Both players struggled for rhythm in the hot but breezy conditions and twice Clijsters broke her compatriot's serve. Unforced errors ensured Henin didn't have to do anything special to recover parity. Growing in confidence, Henin capitalised and the eighth seed dispatched a winning smash at the second attempt to open a 6-5 lead. Serving for the set, Henin held to 30 before decisively winning the rally of the match to break for a 3-2 lead in the second.

From that moment the result was never in doubt. In the absence of Martina Hingis, Henin will head the challenge to the power players at the French Open. She probably doesn't want to know that success in Rome doesn't bode well for Paris. Not since Monica Seles in 1990 has the Italian Open champion gone on to win at Roland Garros.

Martina Hingis will undergo complex ankle surgery in Zurich tomorrow to repair one torn and three loose ligaments in her left ankle. Her surgeon has said that she will be able to start light training after three weeks, and able to play competitive tennis within three months. This means she is definitely out of the French Open and Wimbledon .

M'I like the way things are going now,' said the 22-year-old Safin, who has often disappointed since winning the US Open 20 months ago. 'I have more experience and I am trying to be stronger mentally. I am not rushing so much and when you do that you usually get your chances.'

However Safin has lost both his encounters with Roger Federer, the man who ended Pete Sampras's record-breaking Wimbledon run last year, and who reached his first clay-court final by ending another surprising sequence, that of the bounding Belarussian Max Mirnyi. Federer won 6-4 6-4 against an unseeded opponent who treated the slowest surface as though it were the fastest, charging to the net disconcertingly almost all the time.

Federer had the better all-court game, requiring him to gamble less to get forward, and also the knack of returning Mirnyi's monster serve. 'I've been for dinner with him a few times and played doubles with him, so I knew him and his game,' he explained with a grin. Federer's win pushes Tim Henman down one place to number five in the race.

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