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Former
world number one Justine Henin continued her comeback from a six-month
injury absence as Belgium whitewashed Kazakhstan 3-0 at the Hopman Cup
mixed team event on Tuesday.

Henin saw off
stand-in Sesil Karatantcheva 6-4 6-3 to put Belgium ahead and Ruben
Bemelmans upset the much higher-ranked Andrey Golubev 6-4 6-4. The
Belgians then won the mixed doubles 4-6 6-2 10-8.

The win kept alive
Belgium’s hopes of qualifying for Saturday’s final as winners of Group
A, though they will have to beat top seeds Serbia in their remaining
group match to stand a chance.

In just her second
match since Wimbledon because of a serious elbow injury, Henin was
still a little rusty but had too much experience and nous for world
number 140 Karatantcheva.

Having only arrived
in Perth late on Monday as a replacement for the injured Yaraoslava
Shvedova, Karatantcheva did an admirable job and had Henin worried when
she broke to lead 3-1 in the second set.

But the seven-times
grand-slam champion regained her composure to reel off five straight
games to clinch victory, before joining Bemelmans to win an
entertaining doubles.

“It’s not that easy especially after the injury so I am working hard to come back,” Henin said.

“It’s the first two
matches so I know it’s going to take a bit of time but it’s just great
to have the opportunity to play a few matches and have competition
again.” World number 178 Bemelmans had pushed Lleyton Hewitt in his
opening match and took his game up another level as he outplayed
Golubev, ranked 142 places above him.

The 22-year-old
looked nervous when he squandered three match points on the Golubev
serve at 5-3 but held on to serve out for one of the best victories of
his career.

“Though I lost my first match I stayed positive and it was great
today,” Bemelmans said. “I played very well and it’s my best win in
terms of ranking.” Top seeds Serbia were to take on hosts Australia in
the day’s other Group A match.