Australian Open Tennis / Tony Keen / 26 January 2010 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

British young gun Andy Murray and Belgian star Justine Henin will progress through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open, says Tony Keen.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. Andy Murray (GBR)

Two of the most exciting players in the game will go head-to-head to earn a place in the last four of the Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal has been pushed to four sets by his last two opponents, German Philipp Kohlschreiber and big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, after winning in straight sets in the first two rounds.

Conversely, Andy Murray has been impressive throughout the tournament, having claimed four straight-sets victories in a row.

The Spaniard boasts a 7-3 record against the 22-year-old, but Murray was victorious in their last meeting at a grand slam back in 2008, the semi-final stage of the US Open. And,despite being number two in the world, Nadal has struggled against the game's elite in recent times, having recorded just one win in his past 15 matches against top 10 players.

Taking this into consideration, and the current form of world number four Murray, back the young Brit to get up in a five-set classic.

Justine Henin (BEL) vs. Nadia Petrova (RUS)

Nadia Petrova will be high on confidence after completely outclassing Kim Clijsters ,6-0 6-1, in the third round and then downing No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets in the fourth round.

However, she faces an uphill task to progress through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time as she will be coming up against Justine Henin, who has won 12 of her 15 matches against the Russian, including the most recent at the Brisbane International earlier this year, 7-5 7-5.

Henin, playing in her first grand slam tournament since her decision to take a 20-month retirement, has shown her fighting qualities in the past two rounds. In the third round, the diminutive Belgian was down a set and a break in the second to Russian Alisa Kleybanova, but rallied to win five of the next six games and to eventually take the match into a deciding set before prevailing, 3-6 6-4 6-2.

Then, in the fourth round, fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer had two first-set points on Henin's serve, but the seven-time grand slam winner hit some big shots to hold serve and win the tie-break. Wickmayer bounced back to win the second set, 6-1, before Henin lifted a gear to secure a 7-6 (7-3) 1-6 6-3 victory.

Henin's grit and classy stroke play will see her move one step closer towards completing a fairytale comeback. Nine of Henin's 12 wins over Petrova have been in straight sets, so the smart money would be on the 26-year-old prevailing in two hard-fought sets.