Finally, Amelie Mauresmo was able to shake the monkey off her back, overcoming her nerves in a gallant fight with Justine Henin-Hardenne, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. With her win, comes another accolade, having been the first Frenchwoman to win the singles title since the great Suzzane Lenglen won it in 1925. Incidentally, Mauresmo’s win levels her career head-to-her wins with Henin-Hardenne at 5-5.
The first set saw Henin-Hardenne race to a 2-0 lead. It was Henin-Hardenne who showed dominance early in the match by coming to the net more often, moving Mauresmo from side to side, using her trademark backhand shot. Mauresmo showed some resistance by holding her serve in the third game. The two players went on to win the next two games one after the other, both holding their respective serves, leaving the scoreboard at 3-2. With Mauresmo incurring double faults, and coupled with Henin-Hardenne’s tenacity, Henin-Hardenne went on to win the first set, 6-2, in thirty-one minutes.
The second set saw the tide turned against Henin-Hardenne as Mauresmo found her rhythm and rebounded, ending every volley with winners. Mauresmo then took the first three games. The two players then held their serves one after the other, pushing the score to 4-2 with Mauresmo, backed by a renewed level of confidence, leading. Henin-Hardenne, on the other hand, could only do so much, as she incurred unforced errors one after the other. At one point, Henin-Hardenne looked in her coach’s direction in the crowd, as if waiting for quick advice on how to stop the resurgent Mauresmo. Henin-Hardenne held her serve and won the seventh game of the second set to reduce Mauresmo’s lead to 4-3. Henin-Hardenne’s desire to recover and finish the match in two sets came to an end when a fully-pumped up Mauresmo won the next two games and the second set 6-3 in forty-nine minutes, to force a third set.
Article comments
1 - MCH
Mauresmo's "choking" reputation was undeserved...seems like everytime an athlete or team doesn't win a big game the so-called "experts" predicted them to win, the first thing they do is call choke...the problem with this being, it doesn't give credit to the great play of the victorious opponent...
2 - manfred
Actually she did have near nervous breakdowns on court and I was happy to see she had overcome them in Australia and I think it is even better now with her winning two slams and not against the least players either: Sharapova , Hardenne are just examples.
3 - MCH
Interesting...that makes her victory even more impressive...I know what it's like (on a much smaller scale, of course) fighting with nerves and having to overcome pressure during competition...
4 - manfred
Yah when I played football I had to overcome those too but with football you don't have final moments to close a set so I cant really make a resembling comparison.