Wouldn't an Amelie Mauresmo-Martina Hingis semifinal provide some interesting pre-match press?  Hingis has a quick mouth, but even she may have a little trouble talking around her comments about Mauresmo seven years ago here in Australia.  Note in the following article that  Mauresmo has still not forgiven her.  Maybe she'd want revenge badly enough to forget to choke?

Patty Schnyder and Kim Clijsters still stand in the way of that matchup though.

From The Age: Mauresmo's chance to stand tall

MARTINA Hingis called her "half a man" seven years ago. These days, she's about half the size of the incoming catwalk of Russian and eastern European women and, on her form and draw, Amelie Mauresmo is half a chance to break her notorious grand slam title duck.

Mauresmo is 175 centimetres and she ain't heavy (about 60 kilograms, according to French media). Her 16-year-old opponent yesterday, Czech Nicole Vaidisova, is 183 centimetres and already flexing broad shoulders. Maria Sharapova is 188 centimetres but, like Vaidisova, is leggy, blonde and photogenic and will never be labelled even an eighth of a man.

Lindsay Davenport is about Sharapova's size and then there are the Williams sisters, who no longer terrorise, in part, because there are more players who are the size Serena used to be.

"They're probably taller than me, most of them," Mauresmo said after towelling the precocious amazon 6-1, 6-1 in 52 minutes. "When you look at the top 10, I think I'm one of the smallest now."

When Hingis made her unfortunate remark, before the pair played off in the Australian Open final of 1999, the Swiss was still the game's premier player and a teenager, and it was a less-powerful game. Mauresmo, now 26, is a measure of how women's tennis has been super-sized since.

In fairness, the Frenchwoman did — and does — hit the ball with masculine spin and her wristy one-handed backhand also gave her game a blokey dimension. True, she had prominent shoulders, but no more than the Australian women's 4 x 100 freestyle team or a few of the Xena look-alikes invading tennis.

Yet, it's hard to escape the conclusion that, more than anything, it was Mauresmo's open lesbianism that prompted Hingis' ill-considered remark, though she denied this at the time (Hingis reportedly said in German that "she's here with her girlfriend. She's half a man").

Anyway, Mauresmo may get an opportunity to give Hingis a vengeful kicking on court soon, having already given her serve a serve, after Hingis last night beat Samantha Stosur. "Is she going to a win a grand slam again? I don't think so," Mauresmo told the English Sunday Times before the Open. "Her serve is something to be punished far more now." Mauresmo said Hingis' comment would never be forgotten "because it hurt so much".

Mauresmo, the third seed, has Patty Schnyder next — and, if she wins, then the winner of Hingis-Kim Clijsters — and seems closer to finally breaking the slam barrier. She has made the quarter- or semi-finals in an astonishing 13 of her past 14 grand slam events but has been unable to convert those final-eight opportunities into trophies.

By her own admission, the issue has been above the shoulders. In the past, Mauresmo has been foiled by her struggle to keep emotions in check.

Yesterday, she said to win at Melbourne Park would require "a little bit of experience, a little bit of also putting things into perspective. You know, don't let the emotions probably get to you. I also think on the tennis side, I've improved a bit … so now I'm using different things a little bit better, coming in, staying back sometimes, variations."...

Venus and Serena are gone, Davenport and Clijsters have been sore. Hingis is surely short of a gallop. Rebound Ace suits wristy players who hit with spin.

The planets might never align again for Mauresmo as they have at this Australian Open. She won the WTA Tour Championships at season's end, a victory Mauresmo said proved she could "stay focused against the best players in the world for a few matches in a row".

She's half a chance. The question is whether, like Mark Waugh at second slip, she can grab it.

Comments

after all these years?