TENNIS/AUSTRALIAN OPEN: World number one Justine Henin-Hardenne has revealed she will not compete in the Australian Open in Melbourne for family reasons.
The Belgian announced she would not participate in the WTA series of tournaments to be staged Down Under, including the Open itself, which gets under way on January 15th.
The French Open champion said in a statement on her website: "I have to withdraw from the Australian tournaments for personal family reasons.
"I want to thank you in advance for respecting my choices, and my private life."
Tim Henman has also pulled out of the first grand slam of the year after suffering an injury to his right knee.
Henman has not played since October, when he jarred a knee which is thought to have flared up two weeks ago.
Their withdrawals are another blow to an event already resigned to missing several high-profile players. Melbourne native Mark Philippoussis is also out after being told he needs knee surgery and former champion Mary Pierce has also succumbed to a knee problem.
Former French Open champion Anastasia Myskina hurt her toe in Auckland this week and flew home to Moscow for treatment and Argentinian David Nalbandian is struggling to overcome tendinitis in his knee.
Venus Williams is also in doubt after pulling out of the Hopman Cup with a wrist injury, although her sister Serena is confirmed as a starter.
QATAR OPEN: Andy Murray had to come from a set down to book his place in the semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Max Mirnyi in Doha yesterday.
The Scot looked out of sorts from the start and quickly found himself 3-0 down after losing his first two service games.
Another successful serve put the man from Belarus 4-0 up and although Murray won his first service game to love his opponent continued his powerful progress to win the first set 6-2 with some strong net play.
Murray held his own serve to take a 2-1 lead in the second set, which represented a turning point. He broke again and then held his own serve to ease 4-1 ahead, before Mirnyi stopped the rot by restricting Murray to just one point against his serve.
But there was no stopping the British number one as he claimed the next two games.
The first three games of the final set went with serve, but, after Murray had taken a 2-1 lead thanks to a love game, he capitalised on three break points for a two-game cushion and there was no way back for Mirnyi.
ADELAIDE OPEN: Lleyton Hewitt crashed out at the hands of world number 94 Igor Kunitsyn of Russia. The fourth-seeded Australian, who said last week he was playing better than when he topped the world rankings, lost 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in his final pool match.
The Adelaide tournament is the first in 2007 to test the new ATP round-robin format, with an initial 32-player field whittled down to 24 in an elimination round before eight pools of three players are formed.
The eight pool winners reach the quarter-finals.
CHENNAI OPEN: Spanish world number two Rafael Nadal and Austrian Stefan Koubek moved into the Chennai Open quarter-finals yesterday.
While left-hander Koubek thumped seventh-seeded Thai Paradorn Srichaphan 6-1, 6-2 in 47 minutes in his second-round match, top seed Nadal was stretched by Indian wildcard Karan Rastogi in the first set before winning 6-4 , 6-1.
AUSTRALIAN HARDCOURT CHAMPIONSHIP: Martina Hingis and Dinara Safina stayed on course for a meeting in the final after comfortable wins in their quarter-finals.
Top-seeded Swiss Hingis enjoyed a 6-3, 6-1 destruction of Colombia's Catalina Castano, and will face Tathiana Garbin after the 38th-ranked Italian beat Russia's Elena Vesnina 7-5, 6-2.
AUCKLAND CLASSIC: Serbian top seed Jelena Jankovic booked her place in the semi-finals after a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory over 2003 and 2004 champion Eleni Daniilidou.
She will next meet France's Camille Pin, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over compatriot Emilie Loit.
American Jill Craybas reached the semi-finals at the ninth attempt when she defeated the Argentinian veteran Paola Suarez 6-3, 7-6.
