The Frenchwoman has faced an annual struggle to win approval from unforgiving home fans at the French Open. And despite reaching at least the quarter-final stage 14 times in the past 15 major tournaments — with the notable exception of Roland Garros — she is still branded a failure. Yet by winning last November’s season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles, the most prestigious prize in female tennis outside the Grand Slams, Mauresmo finally delivered conclusive evidence that she is a winner.
Now the Australian Open beckons for the 26-year-old, and the signs are good that she can banish that most damning label of being the best player never to win a Grand Slam. Not only is Mauresmo convinced she has the game and mental strength, but she is also fully fit, which seems to put her in a minority of one among the real contenders.
Lindsay Davenport, the world No 1, is troubled by back problems, Kim Clijsters withdrew from last week’s tournament in Sydney because of a painful hip, Maria Sharapova still doesn’t know the extent of the shoulder injury that hampered her last year, and there are doubts over both Williams sisters. Serena, the defending champion here, is clearly overweight. Venus, the Wimbledon champion, has been struggling with the left knee that has rendered her uncompetitive since September.
Even though the French Open champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne, returned from yet another lengthy absence to win last week’s Medibank International in Sydney, her dubious medical history casts doubts over her durability.
“A lot of them have problems, but who in the top 10 has not had some injury or other?” said Mauresmo, who confronted her own physical issues by poaching the services of Michel Franco, a fitness specialist at AS Monaco for the past 20 years, making him a fixture in her travelling team alongside Loïc Courteau, her coach of four years. “That decision helped so much at the end of last year and now I feel prepared and ready to try and win that first Slam.
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“Will this finally be my tournament? I don’t know, but I am convinced I am doing everything I can and my belief in my ability is higher than it has ever been. Of course I know what people say about me and the fact I have not yet won a Slam, but that does not make me feel bad.
“When I achieved the world No 1 ranking in 2004 it was a great moment. Then the sense of joy, elation and relief I experienced in LA was something special and convinced me I could achieve more. Perhaps when people say these things about me they really mean that I don’t deserve to win or be No 1, but that’s not true, because I give it everything.”
Curiously, her success at the end of last year had its foundations in yet more criticism. The normally measured writers of L’Equipe, the respected French sports daily, held her largely responsible for France’s defeat to Russia in the Fed Cup final at Roland Garros.
She defeated the Russian No 1, Anastasia Myskina, only to fell in three sets to Elena Dementieva. In the doubles partnership with Mary Pierce, she lost to Dementieva and Dinara Safina. Mauresmo’s countenance on leaving the same court after various French Open exits has been grim, but this defeat and its subsequent accusations took her to a new low. “The down I felt was maybe bigger than anything I have felt before,” she recalled. “It was terrible and I had a trouble handling it. There was disappointment because I had been involved in the team for years and had been fighting the cause of French women’s tennis, but I was made to feel even worse. People made me carry all the responsibility and it seemed just me had lost, rather than the team.”
Subsequent defeats in Moscow and Zurich seemed to undermine her self-belief further and she headed to the US with little expectation for the conclusion of the year. First she won the title in Philadelphia, exacting revenge over Dementieva in the final. She repeated the treatment over the Russian at the Championships before beating Clijsters, Sharapova and then Pierce in an extended three-set final.
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“How can I explain my feelings after that match point (against Pierce)? There was relief, there was joy. I remember walking back to my chair and thinking a huge weight had been lifted. Suddenly all the pressure had gone.”
Now Mauresmo returns to the place where another emotional stake was driven into her heart when she lost the 1999 Australian Open final to Martina Hingis. The emphatic 6-2 6-3 defeat is long since forgotten, but not the spiteful words of her opponent, who mockingly accused Mauresmo of being “half a man”. Mauresmo is still affected by the memory. “It is something I will remember all my life because it hurt so much. People ask me if I can laugh about it now. It is something I would never connect with laughter, but similarly I refused to let it make me cry. I was shocked. Now she (Hingis) is back playing here and it will be interesting to see how she does. Women’s tennis has changed so much. There are more players competing at the highest level now. When she was winning her Grand Slams there were just two or three potential winners, now eight to 10 players are capable of winning the title. Martina had some good results in her first (comeback) tournament, but is she going to win a Grand Slam again? I don’t think so. Her serve is something to be punished far more now.”
With that, Mauresmo headed for her table. A new dedication to what she hopes to achieve limited her order to a little fish, salad and pasta. None of her beloved foie gras, definitely no vin rouge. The time for those will come. She hopes to celebrate victory at another feast in a fortnight’s time.