Former world No. 1 Justine Henin will extend her tennis comeback in Australia after officials announced Monday she has been granted a wild-card entry to the Sydney International. Henin is due to make her official return to the WTA circuit, after an 18-month absence, at the Brisbane International tournament that starts on Jan. 3 next year. She will now play in the Jan. 10-16 Sydney event which serves as a lead-up to the Australian Open starting in Melbourne on Jan. 18. “I have a lot of happy memories of Sydney and have won the title three times, so I am looking forward to returning in January as part of my preparation for the Australian Open,” Henin said. “The women's draw is very impressive and it will be great to get some tough, competitive matches at the Medibank International Sydney before heading to Melbourne.” The 27-year-old Belgian announced her retirement from top-level tennis in May 2008 after winning seven Grand Slam titles and spending a total of 117 weeks at the top of the women's rankings. Nine of the women's top 10 will compete at the Sydney International. The only one missing will be world No. 6 Venus Williams, who will warm up for the first Grand Slam of the year with an exhibition match in Thailand. Nalbandian targets Davis Cup Argentina's former world No. 3 David Nalbandian has targeted the Davis Cup as a main objective as he steps up his return from a seven-month injury lay-off at an exhibition tournament in Buenos Aires. The 2002 Wimbledon runner-up, who made a winning return to action at an exhibition tournament last week, has been sidelined with a hip injury since May and has been recovering from surgery in August. “The first issue is to make it through these first four months,” the 27-year-old said. “I have to be careful and time will tell what goals I can set. But obviously the Davis Cup is still a clear objective; after that, the big tournaments.” Nalbandian is set to return to the ATP Tour at the Jan. 11-16 Auckland Open to complete his preparations for the Australian Open, starting in Melbourne the following weekend. “I don't think I'll have problems with the short tournaments but the Grand Slams are two weeks,” he added. “I start in Australia, which is not ideal but I feel like I can play. For now I still have the same goals because I think I'm going to feel good. I still have high hopes.” Nalbandian, who has reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events as well as winning the ATP World Tour Finals in 2005, is ranked 64th in the world. Argentina faces Sweden in their World Group first-round tie in Stockholm in March. Gasquet ready to turn the page After his nightmare 2009 season, French tennis player Richard Gasquet insists he now wants to turn the page and get back to winning titles. The 23-year-old former world top 10 player saw his world ranking plummet to 52 after a positive test for cocaine following a kiss in a Miami nightclub resulted in him serving a ban. “In my heart I was expecting this outcome because I'm innocent. So justice has been done,” the former French No. 1 said after being cleared of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Gasquet tested positive during the Miami Masters in March and was provisionally suspended in May before serving a two-and-a-half month retroactive ban. But the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) wanted him to be hit with a ban of one or two years. It was their appeal to CAS which was rejected as sport's top court acknowledged that the Frenchman was likely to have been inadvertently contaminated with a minute trace of the drug as a result of the kiss. “What was horrible was the way people look at you and to see yourself in the media. “I can turn the page towards 2010,” said Gasquet who will now prepare for the first tournaments of the season in Australia.
