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Unfulfilled promise Head games keep Mauresmo from reaching her peak
By Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated NEW YORK -- It was nearly three years ago that Amelie Mauresmo gave new zest to the phrase "coming out party." She entered the 1999 Australian Open as a little-known French teenager; she left two weeks later as a Grand Slam finalist who became an overnight cause célèbre and, most important, a sure-fire future champion. Yet today, at age 22, she remains a work in progress. Those who doubt the extent to which tennis is a mental game ought to watch Mauresmo play. Nearly 5-foot-10 and endowed with exquisite musculature, she is among the few players who can exchange thunderbolt serves and swap heavy baseline artillery with the likes of the Williams sisters, Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport. She moves well, hits graceful shots and whips her one-handed backhand like a farmer wielding a scythe. Her weakness, though, is the hardest aspect to improve: what in polite circles is called "mental toughness." In the grand tradition of Hana Mandlikova and Jana Novotna, Mauresmo is the hyper-talented player cursed with a psyche more fragile than an eggshell. When the stakes are highest, her internal circuitry goes on the fritz; when the going gets tough, there is a disconnect between the mind and body. She showed as much Wednesday night in a winnable quarterfinal match against Capriati. Tied at three games in the first, Mauresmo took a mental hiatus. Before she could look up, she was down a set and a break. Three times she held break points; three times she committed unforced errors, once returning a Capriati second serve into the bottom half of the net. Even Capriati observed: "As the match wore on, her confidence level went down. She started off the match playing OK; then she started making more mistakes." Earlier this year, it looked as though Mauresmo had exorcised the poltergeists. A bona fide top-five player, she won four spring tournaments -- she had only won two events in her career previously -- and put together a string of 27 wins in 28 matches, beating players like Capriati and Martina Hingis. Heading into the French Open she was the favorite of many, not least the locals. Roland Garros was deemed "La Terre d'Amelie" (the land of Amelie) by one publication. Disaster ensued. In her first match on Court Central, Mauresmo, seeded fifth, fell to a little-known player, Jana Kandarr in straight sets. Afterwards she described herself as feeling "paralyzed" and "helpless" on the court. Two weeks later, she pulled out of an event citing "exhaustion," clearly the mental variety. "She had worked so hard and won so much and then to fail so thoroughly at a Grand Slam in front of her home fans was devastating," says a French source close to Mauresmo. "It was like the [ghost] was still there." Mauresmo hasn't been half the player since. On the grass of Wimbledon, her worst surface, she struggled for two rounds before losing in straight sets to Tamarine Tanasugarn. In just two summer events, she won three matches. As is so often the case with tennis shakier pressure players, Mauresmo is no dim bulb. On the contrary she is as thoughtful and intelligent a player as you'll find. And this, in a sense, is the problem. For all we hear about "smart players" at some level in tennis, ignorance is bliss. The players who are machine-like and have no conflicting thoughts are often the most successful. Those rational souls who recognize pressure, realize that each shot presents a battery of options, and appreciate momentous occasions are often doomed. "Sometimes with Amelie she maybe thinks too much," says Nathalie Tauziat. "She just needs to play her game and forget everything else." After Wednesday's match, Mauresmo left the court wearing the kind of blank expressions that suggested that deep down, she never really expected to win. She asserted, however, that wavering confidence played no role in her defeat. "I had a few occasions to break her and I didn't take it," she said matter-of-factly. "She just played a good match and she played better than me. That's it." As Mauresmo cleaned out her locker she had a tete-a-tete with her coach, former player Alexia Dechaume-Ballaret. The coach had scribbled notes on a pad, most surely pertaining to Mauresmo's unforced count and her unwillingness to move forward even after her penetrating shots had put Capriati on the defensive. For all the X's and O's, one hopes she paraphrased from James Thurbur and offered a simple directive to her talented charge: Leave the Mind Alone.
Half volleysAshley Harkleroad may have the dubious distinction of having lost in the first round of four events here -- women's singles, women's doubles, mixed doubles and girls' doubles. But as the seventh seed in girls' singles, the "American Anna" will play in Arthur Ashe Stadium tomorrow. ... A near-riot ensued today when fans found Pelé traversing the grounds. The soccer legend will be broadcasting countryman Gustavo Kuerten's match tomorrow. ... Don Johnson and Jared Palmer moved into the doubles final with a three-set winner over Sandon Stolle and defending doubles champ Max Mirnyi. They'll meet Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett for all the marbles. ... Two years ago Wednesday Capriati read her ill-fated "prepared statement" to the media. "I still get negative criticism [but] I think I did the right thing," she says. ... Pat McEnroe has called a news conference to announce his lineup for the next Davis Cup tie. Andy Roddick is a lock in singles and the team of Johnson and Palmer ought to be in doubles. The second singles spot will be "a surprise," he says. James Blake? Todd Martin? Taylor Dent? Harkleroad? Stay tuned. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will file daily reports from Flushing Meadows. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.
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