Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine chases the ball for a backhand return against eighth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia during their third round match at the Australian Open last Friday. Bondarenko won, 6-2, 6-3. (REUTERS)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Justine Henin rallied from being a set and a break down to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open in what’s becoming a pattern of her comeback to the tour.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner beat No. 27 Alisa Kleybanova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, on Friday after being just one point from falling a set and two breaks behind.

Dinara Safina’s progress to the fourth round was easier, the No. 2 seed scoring a 6-1, 6-2 win over Britain’s Elena Baltacha in her first match back on Rod Laver Arena since her lopsided loss to Serena Williams in last year’s final.

“I’m happy to be back here in Rod Laver, I didn’t have too many good memories from last year so I turned it around and tried to forget the bad memories,” said Safina, preferring to focus on the positives. “I had some unbelievable matches here in Rod Laver: dramas, fighting, running.”

Eighth-seeded Jelena Jankovic was upset, 6-2, 6-3, by No. 31 Alona Bondarenko.

Both Safina and Jankovic have held the No. 1 ranking, but neither has won a Grand Slam singles title. Only Safina, who has been a runner-up three times, can make that breakthrough here.

Jankovic made 40 unforced errors against 13 winners, contributing to her first loss in 10 meets with Bondarenko. The 24-year-old Serbian hasn’t gone beyond the fourth round at any of the majors since she lost the 2008 US Open final - her only championship match at a major - but remains full of confidence.

Another Belgian, Yanina Wickmayer, is into the fourth round after a 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 after Serra Erani.

Facing two break points at 1-3 in the second set, it seemed that Henin’s dramatic second round win over Olympic gold medalist and No. 5-ranked Elena Dementieva on Wednesday had sapped too much energy.

After all, it was only the seventh match since she returned from 20 months off the tour.

But Henin managed to hold that game, starting to hit the lines with her groundstrokes instead of just missing them, and in the next game converted her first break-point chance of the match against Kleybanova.

She broke again in the 10th game to level at 1-set all, the Russian giving it to her with a double-fault.

Henin, who is unranked and playing on a wild-card entry, went up a break and led 3-1 in the deciding set and – apart from a momentary lapse when Kleybanova broke her in the fifth game – dominated the rest of the match.

Only two nights earlier, Henin had to save set points to finish off Dementieva in a tiebreaker, drawing on the experience of losing in similar circumstances to Kim Clijsters after holding match points in the Brisbane International final on January 9.

That was Henin’s first tournament since she quit while holding the No. 1 ranking in May, 2008.

Clijsters, who inspired Henin’s return to the tour by winning the US Open last September in her third tournament back from retirement, was playing a night match against Nadia Petrova. Henin and Clijsters could meet in the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal also had a night match against Philipp Kohlschreiber on Rod Laver Arena.

Roger Federer, the king of tennis, met Britain's Prince William on the same court the previous evening. After Federer dispatched Victor Hanescu, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, in 99 minutes Thursday, on-court interviewer Jim Courier invited the top-ranked Swiss star to acknowledge the rare visit to Melbourne by a high-ranking British royal.