PARIS, France - The tennis renaissance of Amélie Mauresmo continued in front of her home crowd Saturday afternoon, as the Frenchwoman stormed into the final of the $700,000 Open GDF SUEZ with a three set victory over Jelena Jankovic. She will take on Elena Dementieva for the title Sunday.
Mauresmo has had a glittering career on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, with 24 titles in hand - including two Grand Slams, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 - and 39 weeks as the world's No.1 player, five weeks in 2004 and 34 more in 2006. But it hasn't been so peachy since 2006, as she has fallen out of the Top 20, and hadn't reached a single final since June 2007.
That all changed in Paris on Saturday, as Mauresmo continued her unlikely run at the Open GDF SUEZ. Seeded No.8 at the Premier tournament, she had lopsided wins in her first two matches - including one over Sara Errani, who had beaten her in Fed Cup play over the weekend - then totally routed No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in Friday's quarterfinals, winning the last 11 games to win, 62 60.
Jelena Jankovic, the No.2 seed, provided far more resistance than Mauresmo's previous opponents, but succumbed to exactly the same fate. Mauresmo won the first set handily, 6-2, then held several points to hold serve in the first game of the second when Jankovic went on an absolute tear, winning seven games in a row to take the second set and lead 1-0 in the third. It would all come to an end however, as Mauresmo got her game back on track and reeled off six games in a row of her own to complete a 62 06 61 win, much to the delight of the crowd.
"Let's forget about the second set, and just focus on the first and third sets," Mauresmo joked afterwards. "I'm very happy about today's match. I served well, was aggressive and was focused more or less the entire match. The crowd was great and it was a very good atmosphere. I'll have to remember the way I played today for tomorrow - I need to stay aggressive and always try to be in charge."
Mauresmo will be going for her third Paris [Indoors] title, having won the event in 2001 and 2006. She has also been a runner-up three times, in 1999, 2003 and 2005 (losing the first two finals to Serena Williams and the third to Dinara Safina). She is now 6-1 lifetime against Jankovic as well.
Williams withdraws, grants Dementieva free pass into final
Earlier in the day, No.1 seed Serena Williams announced she had to pull out of the tournament due to a right knee tendon injury, granting No.3 seed Elena Dementieva a walkover into Sunday's championship match.
"I wasn't moving at all in practice, so there was really no chance for me to play today," Williams said. "I think I hurt it towards the end of my quarterfinal match. I guess I didn't have enough time to recover. I want to make the fans happy and it wouldn't have been a good effort from me if I played today."
The 27-year-old American remained optimistic about her recovery though: "I've just been playing a lot of tennis, so maybe this is a sign I'll need to take a day or two off and get ready for the next event, which is in two days. I'm going to make the effort to play there and do my best, and we'll just see what happens."
Dementieva has had a phenomenal start to 2009, winning 19 of 20 matches, a stretch that includes back-to-back titles at Auckland and Sydney, a semifinal showing at the Australian Open (falling to Williams) and now another final in Paris.
The final will see a resumption of one of the lengthier rivalries out there, as Mauresmo and Dementieva have played 14 times before, Mauresmo leading that, 8-6. Dementieva has won their last two meetings in straight sets, but in their only meeting at this event it was Mauresmo who won, 60 60, in the 2003 semifinals. It was the only double bagel loss of Dementieva's career.
