Justine Henin races into Eastbourne semis

EASTBOURNE: World number one Justine Henin brushed aside Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova to reach the semi-finals of the Eastbourne International grasscourt tournament on Thursday.   

Henin, the holder of this Wimbledon warm-up event, won 6-2 6-2 in 55 minutes.   

Fifth seed Vaidisova, the youngest player in the draw at 18 and a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January, has a big serve but when that started to let her down she had no other weapons to use against the Belgian top seed.   

She found herself 5-0 down within 20 minutes, having held only one game point.   

Vaidisova broke Henin as the Belgian served for the first set at 5-1 up but then surrendered her next serve to love.   

Henin, who was soon 5-2 up in the second set, piled on the pressure as she watched Vaidisova's serve become more erratic.   

Though the Czech saved one match point she soon gave Henin a second chance thanks to a double fault, then put a backhand into the net to concede the match.   

French Open champion Henin, aiming to win Wimbledon to complete her collection of grand slam titles, will next play either fourth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia or Marion Bartoli of France.