Mauresmo loses final but wins admirers
Posted: Saturday January 30, 1999 10:15 AM
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Mauresmo's giant-killing performance in Melbourne will see her world ranking rise from 29 to 18 AP |
MELBOURNE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Amelie Mauresmo of France lost the Australian Open final but won plenty of admirers for her courage and demeanour against a woman who two days earlier had labelled her a "half-man."
Saving six championship points in the final game against Martina Hingis also helped show Mauresmo's mettle as he went down 6-2 6-3.
Hingis has made two denials in Melbourne this week. On Friday she denied questioning her opponent's gender when she mocked her for bringing her girlfriend on tour. On Saturday, she denied that she had apologised for the remark.
"There's nothing to apologise for," the 18-year-old Swiss told reporters.
Mauresmo kept out of the row, except to express her love for partner Sylvie Bourdon in front of the centre court crowd after losing her first grand slam final.
But the broad-shouldered 19-year-old from Saint Tropez, who is virtually the only woman on the tour to hit winners off a one-handed backhand, said both Hingis and American Lindsay Davenport had apologised for their remarks.
World number one Davenport had said after losing to Mauresmo in the semifinals that "a couple of times I thought I was playing a guy."
"Both of them apologised so I don't want to talk about it any more," Mauresmo told a post-match news conference on Saturday. "They apologised and that's it."
Apart from her heroics in the final game, when she fired five winners including an ace to save match points against her, Mauresmo was comprehensively outplayed by Hingis as the Swiss claimed her third straight Australian Open title.
But Mauresmo's giant-killing performance in Melbourne will see her world ranking rise from 29 to 18 and earn her new respect from her colleagues.
Although Mauresmo unhooked her telephone to cut off the Hingis row, she received lots of faxed messages of support from home, including one from Yannick Noah -- the Frenchman whose 1983 French Open victory inspired her to take up tennis just before her fourth birthday.
Mauresmo's next appearance will not be until the Paris Open indoor tournament starting on February 22. Her next big target after that will be the French Open at Roland Garros in May.
"First I think I'm going to learn how to deal with the grand slam final. It's a lot of pressure, a lot of tension. I think next time I'm going to deal with it differently," Mauresmo said.
"Today I lacked patience for sure...I hurried too much at the beginning, I tried to finish the points too quickly.
"The rest of the two weeks I was patient, I finished my points properly, but today I was in too much of a rush."
After Roland Garros, Mauresmo's next grand slam opportunity will come at Wimbledon. Mauresmo says she can play on all surfaces and is planning some serious work on her volleying before hitting the grass of the All-England Club, where she lost last year in the second round to Indonesian Yayuk Basuki.
"In tennis terms, I think I have learned that I should go to the net more often," Mauresmo said. "But this I already knew...I've been playing for a long time at the baseline."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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