Top seed Justine Henin breezed into the quarter-finals of the 1.34 million US dollar WTA Qatar Open on Wednesday with a 6-2, 7-6 (11/9) victory over Australian Alicia Molik.

The second seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia also moved into the last eight stage of the event, beating Germany's Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-1, while Swiss Patty Schnyder ousted Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-4.

Henin, bidding for back-to-back titles in the Gulf after her win in Dubai last week, overcame a period of uncertainty in the second set to beat Molik for the fifth consecutive time.

In five meetings between them, Molik has taken just one set off Henin and that came at Miami in 2005.

On Wednesday, though, the Australian held two set points in the second set tie-break but couldn't prevent the World No. 2 from clawing back and clinching the match, equaling at 8-8 and then again at 9-9.

Molik made crucial errors on her serve when she put the ball into the net to give the Belgian a 10-9 advantage and Henin exploited a weak approach for a passing shot to win the match and set up a quarter-final clash with Schnyder.

Henin said the windy condition on the court affected her play.

"It's not easy to play good tennis when the wind is blowing so hard. You can't be sure where the ball is going," said the Belgian, who also had words of praise for Molik."

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2007)