Memories of Amelie

No, it’s not a eulogy. Or maybe, it’s a eulogy to her career. And it may be a premature one knowing that women players have been doing some sort of un-retirement by the masses. (i.e. Clijsters, Henin, and yes, even Kimiko Date). But, having read earlier today that Amelie Mauresmo retired, I wanted to take a moment and jot down how I, as a tennis fan have viewed her. I will try to jot down my memories as it’s stored in my head – before jumping over to the WTA website and see if my memories correspond to actual facts.

I first heard of Amelie in the 1999 Australian Open. She made headlines by defeating Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals, and was about to challenge Martina Hingis for her first major title. Hingis, she who “lacked-formal-education” and who “always-spoke-out-her-mind” gained further notoriety by calling Amelie Mauresmo “half a man”. Even the classy Davenport , during her post match interview, said she was surprised at how hard Amelie was hitting the ball – if I’m not mistaken, she was alluding to Amelie playing like a man. Amelie, at the ripe old age of 19 took all in stride. She handled Davenport ’s comments positively and said it’s the result of her rigorous strength training.

In the same year, I believe Mauresmo met Hingis in the earlier rounds of the French Open. Hingis beat her as well, but there was apprehension on Hingis part on how the French crowd would treat her before the match. On a side note, we all know how the French crowd booed and hissed repeatedly at Hingis when she eventually reached the finals and had a melt down when she lost to Steffi Graf. Now that I think about it, Amelie Mauresmo would is the last person that Hingis beat at a Grand Slam final.

Fast forward to 2002 – Mauresmo is now an established star. She was facing world #2 Venus Williams in the semifinals of the US Open. Venus and Serena battled in the finals of the previous 2 grand slams. Venus would become #1 by winning the US Open. Mauresmo and Venus split the first 2 sets. Venus was serving and she was up, 5-4 in the third set. Mauresmo gains 3 break points. Venus sends 3 strong serves and all 3 break points were erased. She went on to win the game and the match.

On this match, Navratilova criticized the US Open crowd for cheering on Mauresmo - a foreign player. When Mauresmo was asked about the break points she let go, she said that Venus was a champion and handled the situation very well, while she was still learning how to handle such situations.

On to the French Open in 2003: A highly anticipated match between Serena Williams and Mauresmo emerged after the draw came out. It would happen on the quarterfinals. Serena was on a 4 Grand Slam winning streak and the French crowd was hoping for an upset – as they always do. Both players won their four matches and the media was saying that the quarterfinal with Mauresmo would be Serena’s first test during the tournament. Serena came out firing from all over the court and the match was completed very fast. Mauresmo managed only 2 games. Serena went on to lose her next match against Justin Henin in the match with the infamous hand raising incident.

Wimbledon 2004 – Serena was top-seeded but it was her first tournament after a long lay-off. She met Mauresmo in the semifinals. It was a long and tough match going all the way to the third set. Serena eventually won, but barely. In the finals, I really believe that Serena spent too much energy in her match with Mauresmo that she didn’t have anything left to give. She lost in straight sets to a 17-year old appearing in her first major final – her name is Maria Sharapova.

Fall of 2004 – Mauresmo buoyed by strong though unspectacular results in the past 12 years reached the #1 ranking for the first time. She is the 2nd woman behind Kim Clijsters to reach the top spot without winning a Grand Slam title.

2006 – the banner year of Mauresmo’s career. She reclaimed the #1 spot, and she won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon for her first 2 and last grand slam wins. I wasn’t that much interested with women’s tennis at this point – my favorite sisters weren’t performing well. But, I was cheering anyone playing against Justine Henin. It was too bad that Mauresmo wasn’t able to keep the year end top ranking.

2007 – the Williams sisters took over the grand slam titles that Mauresmo won the previous year. Serena smashed Sharapova for the Australian Open crown, and Venus beat Mauresmo’s country-woman, Marion Bartoli to win Wimbledon . I think Mauresmo was injured during this year.

2008 – 2009: the twilight years of Mauresmo’s career. She hovered outside the top 10 for most of these years but she managed to win the Paris title in February 2009 – that would be her last title.

Off Court: I don’t remember which year it was but Mauresmo had a split with her long time partner and the split wasn’t all that smooth. But, it wasn’t in the news as much as the Navratilova affair was.

Dec 2009: Mauresmo calls it a career saying she doesn’t want to train anymore. Looking back at what I wrote here, I should have titled this post as Mauresmo’s career from a Williams sisters’ fan’s perspective. (Ugh!) That would be disrespectful of an amazing career. Amelie Mauresmo may not have been in the level of the Williams sisters and Henin with regards to accomplishments, but she certainly qualifies to be mentioned in the next tier. I’d put her alongside Clijsters, Capriati, Davenport , maybe even Hingis, and Sharapova as of 2009. Not amongst the top 3 in her generation – but well placed within the top 10.