French hopes fade as Ivanovic bounces out Mauresmo
May 28, 2005

By Guillaume Baraise      French Open  

Third seed Amélie Mauresmo has exited her home Grand Slam for another year, shocked 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 by 17-year-old Ana Ivanovic. The player from Serbia and Montenegro held off a courageous comeback from the French favourite to earn a well deserved and hard fought victory.

At least Amélie Mauresmo can take some consolation from the fact that she made a fist of it. A set down, 1-3 and 15-40 on her own serve, it looked as though she had blown it, falling once again victim to stage fright. If anything though, her admirable fightback makes her eventual loss all the more frustrating.

Once she had scraped and scrapped back to one set all, the feeling in Philippe Chatrier Court was that Amélie had done the hard part, and that the third set should be hers. The talk in the stands was turning optimistically to easier challenges to come at the last sixteen and even quarter-final stage. Unfortunately for the home crowd, young Ana Ivanovic had other ideas.

Yannick Noah, French Open champion of 1983 was in the stands to watch the player he has been mentoring these past few weeks. But even his reassuring presence and pre-match pep talk was not enough as Mauresmo once again failed to perform to her true potential at Roland Garros.

The local girl cannot be blamed for taking her young adversary lightly either. Well aware of Ivanovic's burgeoning talent, Amélie had beaten the teenager three times already this season. She knew only too well that Ivanovic plays without fear and would seize on any stress-induced deficiency in her game.

So it turned out in the first set as Ivanovic served out from 5-4 after a series of breaks back and forth.

Things got even worse for Mauresmo at the start of the second set. She soon found herself 3-1 and 15-40 down after watching three forehand winners fly by and land on the baseline. Then, suddenly, as if realizing the seriousness of her predicament, Mauresmo began swinging at the ball freely, giving free rein to her naturally devastating game. She held serve, broke back and clinched the set 6-3 after one hour 23 minutes.

The ensuing Mexican wave spoke volumes of the relief in the stands. Ivanovic, however, was unperturbed and responded brilliantly by attacking the Mauresmo service and coming to the net to hit clever winners. She broke to 3-1 but Mauresmo found the resources to fight back to 3-3.

Nonetheless the tide had turned. Ivanovic was in the ascendancy now, and grabbed her opportunity when Mauresmo faltered on her serve at 4-5. Yet more thunderous forehand drives, and a 10th double fault from the French girl handed Ivanovic victory.

A look at the stats only serves to confirm that the Serbia and Montenegran had earned her success. Her 42 winners to Maursemo's 21 reflect Ivanovic's greater risk-taking.

Mauresmo was gracious in defeat: "The first reason today was Ivanovic who gave me a lot of trouble, and played some great tennis."

Translation: David Tutton (Sportstranslations)