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Roland Garros 2009
Shocking!
by Paul Myers
Article published on the 2009-05-25 Latest update 2009-05-25 09:22 TU
Amelie Mauresmo serves to Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 24 May 2009
(Photo: Reuters)
Perhaps the blazing sun of the first day of Roland Garros has gone to my head. I sincerely hope not, as there are another two weeks of competition to enjoy. But on this the second day of the season’s second grand slam I am already considering the nature of shock - not the US military conquest sense of ‘shock and awe’, more in the realm of ‘oh shucks’.
That’s really the only response to proffer after the French 16th seed Amelie Mauresmo slumped out Sunday night, dispatched in straight sets by the power play of the unseeded German Anna-Lena Groenefeld.
It was 6-4 6-3 to the 23-year-old from Saarbrucken, and it left me wondering whether Mauresmo’s demise was a shock.
She has talked quite vividly about the immense pressure of trying to win her home tournament and has done various things like rope in Yannick Noah to give her tips on how to handle the expectation.
He was the last Frenchman to claim the Roland Garros title, and since that highlight in 1983 he has gone on to live a charmed life. In 1991 he was the captain who inspired the French Davis Cup team to their first crown in 59 years against an American side, featuring the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
That the French squad featured Noah’s old playmates, like Guy Forget and Henri Leconte, imbued the triumph with an otherworldly alchemy.
Well, the wizard can now call himself a pop/soul singer for good measure, such is his acceptance since he left Mats Wilander spellbound on that sunny day in June, 26 years ago.
Ms. Mauresmo by contrast seems to have an edgy relationship with the public. The crowds have been known to bawl ‘Amelie, Amelie’ during a match. I have sat on centre court in wonder as 13,000 people delay the play to chant the name of their queen.
Is this not disrespectful to the opponent?
Of course it is. But this is participation sport. And the people want to be firing their heroine into immortality. But as Mauresmo acknowledged it was a double edged sword. The support often emboldened the adversary.
And sadly, those supporters back then didn’t seem to realise that they were flagging up the point that Amelie was at the point where she'd been losing too many points along with, of course, the plot.
Mauresmo’s demise on Sunday wasn’t really a shock because she wasn’t a serious contender this year. But Ana Ivanovic, though she is the defending champion, doesn’t emit the aura of a winner.
True she’s into the second round after defeating the unseeded Italian Sara Errani. But there was a wobble in the first set. Errani served for it at 5-4 up but flinched at the chance to exert some real pressure on the Serb. Ivanovic took the first set in the tiebreak and ran away with the second set.
But two hours to get past an unheralded opponent? Shocking.
Ivanovic has been world number one on two occasions over a total of 12 weeks since winning here in Paris last year but has fluttered her lustrous eyebrows to deceive.
She’s seeded eighth this year, and though it will be deemed a shock when she goes out, in my book it’s only because she is defending champion.
That sounds as if I don’t particularly warm to the 21-year-old. Au contraire. I remember chatting to her four years ago after she’d won a second round match. She positively oozed vitality and confidence. Her third round opponent? One Amelie Mauresmo, then the world number three.
Well guess who was under pressure? Mauresmo’s 2005 campaign ended by a 17-year-old from Belgrade who that year went on to the quarter finals: that was a gilt edged shock.
Since then I’ve been a big fan of Ivanovic and her coruscating ground strokes are wonders to behold. Less aesthetic though is the head bowed to the clenched fist after clinching an important point.
Oy, love you’re a prodigiously gifted tennis player not a Rodin sculpture.
I think that kind of behaviour is shocking.
