A,mélie

As some of you may know, I'm an ardent tennis follower and one of my favourite tennis players is Amélie Mauresmo. It started off as a kind of joke in that towards the end of Dad's life, I was working part time thus had a lot of free time in between going to the hospital and stuff. So, I spent a lot of that time watching films from my vast DVD collection. My favourtie film then (and one of my faves of all time) was JP Jeunet's "Amélie" I just *love* that film.. The actual story was lovely, the music set the scene perfectly, it was fantasy without being too whimsical, it cinematography was first rate, the colours vivid and daring.. And of course, a leading lady whom was beautiful (although not classically beautiful). But she was the heroine of the film, so you loved her anyway.

About the that Wimbledon started, I was reading all the usual predictions by the newspapers of player's guide and their assessment of all the players. I then remembered that there was a player on the tour named Amélie so I read about her and I remember reading in one paper "Great groundies but mon dieu! Can she play at the net?" But that year, I was watching her play and she was mixing it up.. Great groundstrokes like the papers said but she actually serve and volleyed. Hell, it's been YEARS since anyone did that in the women's game. More to the point, she looked comfortable and confident at the net - BOLLOCKS to what the papers said! Here was a woman whom not only serve and volleyed, but had a single handed backhand - And what a glorious shot that was!

So that's how I started following her.. Her problem for years (other than how she was always injured) was undoubtedly her mental frailty. She always wobbled during big matches and it was the source of much ridicule from fans of other players. She's yet to perform well at the French Open (her home slam) because nerves always get the better of her. She hired a sports psychologist and was determined to overcome it but she still wobbled at big points and would fail to close out a match. Following her wasn't good on your blood pressure! For years, she's been labelled "underachiever" and that really sucked when you're a fan of hers and you know how brilliant she is. Even the commentators would get exasperated at her. She's always "I think she has a slam in her, she just needs to work on her confidence."

Well, tonight may be the start of something glorious. She played the match of her life tonight and won the Year End Championships. Some people call this the 5th major tournament after the 4 Slams, and it was a pure joy to see her playing so well against Mary Pierce to win the tournament. It wasn't that Mary lost it or anything - Amélie came out and won it after losing the first set.

As the match was about to start, J and I were discussing whom we thought would win. She wanted to root for Amélie but so far this weekend, all the teams she's been rooting for have lost.. So she was wondering if she should attempt some reverse psychology and root for mary instead? I commented that I thought Mary would win until I heard a snippet of commentary this morning in a replay of last night's SF versus Maria (Sharapova) ... They said that Maria hadn't won any major tournaments this year but in all of them, she had lost to the eventual winner. Well, that sealed Amélie's fate for me. Even at 5-5 in the first set, I wanted to say that if there was a tie break (TB), then I had every confidence that Amélie would win it given how she has an impressive record of winning TB's. However, I changed it to "IF this set goes to a TB, then I have every confidence that she will win it" And what do you know? Her serve was broken that game and she lost the set 5-7. The 2nd set went to a TB - Which she won..

I'm really happy at the moment.. I feel as if all the years of supporting her have been vindicated and that she's finally playing somewhere near her best (she still needs to improve her 1st serve percentage!). But still, she's won a major tournament at last and that's just fucking ace!