Amelie And Venus!

Amelie. Gosh, I certainly didn't expect her to give us such a roller-coaster performance yesterday. One set, she was a joy to watch.. the next.. I nearly had a heart attack. One good thing remained constant though.. the overwhelming support reverberating throughout the stadium for Momo never stopped throughout the whole of the game. The chants of "A-meleee, A-meleee, A-melee" by the French kids who turned up in troves to support their number one sports idol seemed like music to my ears. Hah, and that's only 'cos I too am rooting for Momo. But for Vera Dushevina and her supporters, I can well imagine how they must have detested it.

First set was simply smooth-sailing for Amelie, and I had a fun time enjoying the grace of Momo's strokes and finesse as she dominated the set. Dushevina never really settled down at all, and I thought the look on her face showed pretty much how disgusted she was with herself. I never saw it coming, but in the second set, Amelie pretty much came undone by herself. Momo kinda lost her concentration and suddenly her signature solid backhand and forehand strokes were flying wild and wide. Momo couldn't quite keep her serve and was always trailing a break down until she finally broke back and leveled at 5-5. The second set was painful to watch, and I had to work out a bit with my dumbbells while watching to calm myself down. Dushevina wasn't playing exceptional, rather it was Momo who was doing a kamikaze. She couldn't put away easy shots, failed to convert break points and squandered point after point. I almost couldn't stand watching the game. At 5-5, Amelie had to drop her serve and Dushevina once again had the upper hand at 6-5 and serving for the set. Fortunately, Momo broke back to level at 6-6 for a tie-breaker. During the tie-breaker with Momo leading 6-2 and on serve, I thought the game was all wrapped up finally, but no, she had to do the roller-coaster act once more.. and from 4 match points, Momo squandered 3 and gave Dushevina the chance to bring the scoreline to 6-5 before finally closing it out at 7-6(5). Close shave!

My anxiety didn't stop with Amelie. After Amelie's match, Venus rapidly dropped the first four games of the first set within 17 minutes of the match and committed about 12 errors.. and I was like.. oh no, she's totally off today.. she's going out again. And just as unexpectedly, the turnaround came. Mighty Venus woke up, fought back and won the next four games to level at 4-4. She then dropped her serve again for Emma Laine to go up 5-4, saved a set point before levelling at 5-5, and dropped her serve yet again and then broke back to level at 6-6. Venus went on to win the tie-breaker convincingly at 7-6(2), and also the second set and match at 6-2. It was a difficult day for me. As mentioned before, it's unbelievable how Venus kept dropping her serve and then winning points only on her opponent's serve. But still, her fightback from 4-0 down was very impressive and I really hope both Momo and her would do well to set up a showdown with each other in the quarters.

Another good piece of news.. Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual are back in doubles. The pair, seeded 8th, won their opening match easily last night.. 6-2, 6-0. Paola, a former top-10 player, has been plagued by injuries in the past year and hasn't had good results in the singles coming back. It's nice to see the pair teaming up again.. and I hope they go all the way to defend their title! :)

(Amelie's photo taken from Getty Images,
Venus' photo taken from AP Photo/Michel Euler)

tags : tennis | Roland Garros | French Open | Venus Williams | Amelie Mauresmo | Vera Dushevina | French | kids | support | Paola Suarez | Virginia Ruano Pascual | doubles |