Henin and Clijsters to meet in last four

EASTBOURNE, England, June 22 (Reuters) Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters set up a semi-final appointment at the Eastbourne grasscourt tournament with impressive wins today.

French Open champion Henin-Hardenne beat Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-2 6-4 while Clijsters needed just 44 minutes to defeat Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2 6-1 in difficult, windy conditions at the Wimbledon warm-up event.

Tomorrow's seaside semi-final between the two Belgians will be their first meeting since Henin-Hardenne thrashed Clijsters at the same stage of the French Open two weeks ago.

Henin-Hardenne had a fright early in the second set, after breaking Likhovtseva, when she skidded across the grass as she lunged for the ball. She cried out and dropped her racket, then took a minute to pace the back of the court stretching out her legs.

''I was a little bit scared when that happened,'' said Henin-Hardenne, who has had a recurring knee problem in recent months.

''I over-stretched, I slid a little bit and it was really painful for 30 seconds but not really serious, I think. I didn't feel anything more in the match.'' When she resumed play, the third seed dropped serve but she recovered to get the crucial break in the seventh game and wrapped up victory in 71 minutes.

Defending champion Clijsters had been on court for only 10 minutes before today as her second-round opponent Vera Zvonareva retired injured and she had a first-round bye.

''It was not possible to play your best tennis out there,'' the 23-year-old second seed told reporters. ''The wind was just changing the ball the whole time, it was just swirling around.'' Schiavone looked understandably nervous from the start. The sixth seed had never taken a set off Clijsters in 10 previous meetings, though this was their first encounter on grass.

The Italian hit numerous unforced errors, including missing two straightforward smashes at the net to give away the second break of the first set, and she was penalised four times for foot faults.

Schiavone, who turns 26 tomorrow, did save two match points with service winners but put a backhand into the net on the third.

Clijsters holds a 10-8 head-to-head advantage over her Fed Cup team mate Henin-Hardenne on the WTA Tour but on grass they are even with one win apiece.

REUTERS DH PC2003