 Henin celebrates victory on her return to professional tennis
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Belgium's Justine Henin made a winning return to professional tennis with victory over Russia's Nadia Petrova in the Brisbane International first round.
In her first match since retiring in May 2008, the former world number one beat second seed Petrova 7-5 7-5.
The 27-year-old seven-time Grand Slam winner showed she had lost none of her battling qualities in a deserved win.
Third seed Ana Ivanovic also reached the second round following a 7-5 1-6 6-3 win over Australian Jelena Dokic.
Serbian Ivanovic, 22, herself a former world number one, was playing in her first match since a first-round exit at the hands of Czech Lucie Safarova in Tokyo in September.
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I feel better today than when I retired. Better emotionally, mentally, better with myself and that makes a big difference
Justine Henin
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She then withdrew from October's China Open and ended her 2009 season early because of a respiratory infection.
It was a tough workout for the 2008 French Open champion, who didn't win a tournament throughout the whole of 2009, and as a result has slipped to 21st in the world rankings.
"Obviously there were nerves in the beginning but I did a really good preparation and that gave me a lot of confidence," she said.
"I thought I was serving and moving a lot better than my previous match, which has been a while, so it's definitely good to have a victory under the belt."
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606: DEBATE
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Ivanovic awaits the winner of the match between Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.
Henin's victory over Petrova was also hard-fought.
However, despite dropping serve in the opening game of the second set she recovered to see off her opponent, ranked 20th in the world.
"Everything went well," admitted Henin. "I have a lot to work on, but for a first match, a first tough round, I can be really positive today."
"I feel better today than when I retired, that's for sure. Better emotionally, mentally, better with myself and that makes a big difference that I will enjoy being on the tour again.
She will next play qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan, who beat Australia's Casey Dellacqua 6-2 0-6 7-6 (7-1).
In other results, Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat fifth-seeded compatriot Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 2-6 6-2, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-1 and Roberta Vinci ousted fellow Italian Sara Errani 6-4 2-6 6-2.
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