|
Mauresmo wins Italian Open over Capriati
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-17 10:50
No matter how bleak things looked Sunday, Amelie Mauresmo refused to let
Jennifer Capriati beat her. Coming back from a set down, then saving a match
point, Mauresmo beat Capriati 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) to win the Italian Open for her
second straight title.
Now Mauresmo heads to the French Open looking like a favorite.
"It was so close," said Mauresmo, who also defeated Capriati en route to the
German Open title a week ago.
"When you get to the third-set tiebreaker, you don't really know what is
going to happen. You just hang in there, go for it if you have the opportunity,
and I felt that's what I did."
The only other women to win the German Open and Italian Open consecutively —
Steffi Graf in 1987, and Monica Seles in 1990 — went on to take home the trophy
from Roland Garros.
So does that make Mauresmo the leading candidate to win in Paris, where play
starts a week from Monday?
"I hope. We'll see. Of course it gives you a lot of confidence to win these
kind of matches, especially in the final," the Frenchwoman said. "Next week, I
want to rest a bit, and then there's Roland Garros. I hope to carry on like
this."
At the last big men's French Open tuneup tournament, top-ranked Roger Federer
defeated Guillermo Coria 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to win the Hamburg Masters in
Germany. Federer improved to 32-3 in 2004, and he ended Coria's 31-match winning
streak on clay, which dated to last year's French Open.
Mauresmo's run on the surface is more modest — she lost in the quarterfinals
of a tournament in Warsaw on April 30.
She also came quite close to losing Sunday. Capriati held a match point on
Mauresmo's serve while leading 5-4 in the third set, but the American hit a
forehand long.
Mauresmo, the runner-up at Rome's clay-court tournament three of the past
four years, closed out the win on her second match point, when Capriati's
backhand sailed long.
"I felt that I had some more energy left than she did," Mauresmo said. "It
was a very intense match — very long and very intense from the beginning. The
level was unbelievable from the first game."
The match was filled with long baseline rallies, including a 28-stroke point
won by Capriati in the opening game. Capriati later saved Mauresmo's first match
point with an impressive running forehand cross-court passing shot.
Mauresmo beat Capriati in the semifinals at Berlin.
"Last week, she played really well, and I wasn't ready for her," Capriati
said. "So I had something to prove to myself and to her."
At 4-3 in the first set Sunday, Capriati produced a running passing shot that
helped break Mauresmo, then served out the set.
In the second set, Mauresmo stepped up her game and broke to go up 3-1. With
Capriati spraying forehands long or into the net, Mauresmo maintained the
advantage and forced a third set.
"I felt like we were both playing unbelievable tennis and I didn't lose, she
had to win the match," Capriati said. "I don't feel that bad right now.
"It was just a really fantastic match. That's what I thrive for and that's
what I play for, these kind of matches."
Mauresmo, who won $189,000, dedicated the victory to her father, who died in
March of cancer.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top Sports
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
