Mauresmo's miserable year almost over

ZURICH: Life is full of ups and downs, and Amelie Mauresmo can testify to that better than most.

Things could not have been much better in 2006, as she won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and followed up with another at Wimbledon. This year began well too, with a title in Antwerp and a runner-up finish in Dubai.

Then it all fell apart. She had to undergo surgery for appendicitis in March, and the effects of that have dogged her ever since.

"I had the surgery and since then I definitely haven't felt the way I did before. It's frustrating," said Mauresmo, who struggled to beat Greek qualifier Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Zurich Open on Tuesday.

"I didn't think my body would have this kind of trouble to recover, and it definitely affected me more than I thought it would."

Refusing to believe what her body was telling her, Mauresmo tried to come back far too early. It began in Berlin, where she lost in the third round to Julia Vakulenko, and the misery continued with an opening round loss in Rome to Samantha Stosur. Her hopes were raised when she played in Strasbourg and reached the final, but reality stepped in again the following week in Paris.

Being who she is, and carrying the hopes of a nation, she had no choice but to play at Roland Garros. But she knew she wasn't ready, and she struggled through two matches before losing to Lucie Safarova.

"I think it was a mistake to play there, but I didn't know how fast I was going to come back or not, and now that I have that experience and looking back I can see it was a mistake," said Mauresmo. "But at the time I definitely wasn't able to know I wasn't ready or it was too early."

A champion such as Mauresmo can often disguise or overcome adversity, at least for a while, and so it proved when she moved from clay to grass. She reached the Eastbourne final, but when it came to defending her title at the All England Club she fell far short, going out in the fourth round to Nicole Vaidisova.

The struggle was back on, and after keeping to her commitment to play the Fed Cup semifinal against Italy and dropping one of her matches to Francesca Schiavone, Mauresmo hit a low and stepped away from the game for several weeks.

She hired a boat and sailed around Sardinia in an effort to relax and rekindle her love for the game, but it was a struggle. When she met up with her coach again in France she was suffering from a groin strain and felt she was still not ready to play, and she took the dramatic step of deciding not to play the US Open.

"The surgery was the low point of the season," she said. "I don't care about not being able to play the French if the rest of the season had been great. But after Wimbledon I think the body, the mental side, was going down and I definitely needed some time off to relax and make sure I really wanted to take the racquet back before doing so.

"Now, having this 2007 season behind me is really something I'm looking forward to. Not so much to take a break really, because I took a big break in the summer, but really to go back to work because I need to practice on and off the court to try to have a better 2008 season.

"Next year can only be better. I won't have that many points to defend, and especially physically I really want to feel better, because I've been struggling. So I'm really looking forward to finding this back, then I know the rest is going to come."

AFP

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page23)