25 Apr 2004 - Coliseum d'Amiens, Amiens, FRA - Catherine Luiggi
Mauresmo Swipes the Decisive Point For France
Amelie Mauresmo has secured victory for France commanding 62 63 win over
18-year-old Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Mauresmo has been the linchpin of the
French side, winning both her rubbers in straight sets and extending her
Fed Cup winning streak to ten rubbers.
At the end of her sweeping victory over Barbara Rittner yesterday, Mauresmo
was already thinking ahead to her confrontation with the young Anna-Lena
Groenefeld. The French No.1 was admittedly overjoyed to once again have
the opportunity to claim the decisive point for France. And as she did
in 2003 - against Colombia in the first round, Spain in the quarterfinals
and the USA in the final, Mauresmo secured victory for her nation.
In order to dominate the match against the fearless Groenefeld, against
whom Nathalie Dechy struggled on Saturday, the advice from French Captain
Guy Forget was very clear, 'take the helm from the very start.' The world
No. 3 did exactly that using her confidence gained from her nine consecutive
Fed Cup wins to control her 18 year-old opponent right from the start.
And so the third rubber began today in the best conditions possible for
France, leading 2-0 with Mauresmo at her best - confident, aggressive and
determined to turn this match into a decisive victory.
Not giving the German any breathing space, Mauresmo raced away to a 3-0
lead in the opening set. It wasn’t until the fourth game that the Groenefeld
focused and regained the confidence and aggression she proved she had
yesterday against Dechy. But Mauresmo wasn’t intimidated in the least,
and went on to take the set in 29 minutes with a comfortable score of 62.
When Groenefeld broke Mauresmo in the opening game of the second set, many
asked the question of whether she could turn this game around. But the
Roland-Garros 2003 Juniors Champion committed too many errors and before
to long found herself down 1-4.
Groenefeld continued to battle on and won two more games to take the score
to 3-5 but Mauresmo finished her job with a flawless service game and ended
the match after one hour and two minutes.
“She helped me a lot by making so many errors", stated Mauresmo after
her victory.
"But it was also hard to play indoors for me after having played in the
United States recently. I wasn’t 100% happy with my game today and have
some things I’d like to work on, particularly my service return.
“We did what we came here to do. All week we were very serious and never
took this tie nonchalantly," said Mauresmo.
http://www.fedcup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?id=10443
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