I love tennis, and have been happily spectating for years. My love's pendulum has swung from the WTA to the ATP and back again as I have enjoyed the tennis stylings of Agassi, Venus and Nadal. For a person who spends most matches cheering or yelling at the television I do not write enough about the sport (I do not write enough about many things).
So, here I go: I write about an incident which caught my eye during my daily review of favored tennis blogs. It happened during France and Italy's Fed Cup matches. Fed Cup, for those not in the know, is what happens when tennis players team up by nation and play at various times throughout the tennis season in order to determine the best tennis nation ever (for that year)!!! The competition is further divided by gender, with Fed Cup being for girls and Davis Cup being for boys.
What happened involved Amelie Mauresmo. Ah, Amelie! Headcase extraordinaire! Well, let me not be mean: she did "unclog" long enough to win two Slam titles and attain the number one ranking, if I'm not mistaken. Such results can never be dismissed; 2006 was a very good year. Still, she has a history of being mentally vulnerable and that is a trait which is very hard to entirely defeat.
So, the French Amelie played against the Italian Flavia Pennetta (How awesome is that name?) in her rubber, as it is called. Amelie had won the first set and was serving out the second. A win here would tie France with Italy in the Fed Cup overall and keep French hopes alive. During a rally, Flavia hit a backhand long -- at least that's what the chair ump decided and ruled it so -- this gave Amelie matchpoint. Flavia, as one might imagine, was not pleased. She abused the chair ump with some rough, presumably Italian words and finished it off with The Finger. I guess that's the kind of stuff that gets one thrown out of matches, but the chair ump might have been new to the job because he only gave out a warning.
Even for the mentally toughest competitors that kind of disturbance can effect the rhythm of one's game. Amelie, as I have written above, is not the mentally toughest of gals. With matchpoint in the second set on her racket she double-faulted, gifting Flavia the chance she needed to force the match to a third and deciding set. Here is where it gets sad for Amelie: in the third set she goes up 4 games to 1, obviously having regained her match rhythm. Yet, she still loses the match! Don't ask me how! One could only choke such a commanding lead away because as tricky (in a tough sense) a tennis player as Flavia is, she's not better than Amelie except for maybe one area: her head's screwed on a bit tighter.
Amelie, as one might imagine, was far from pleased by her loss and placed the blame for her game's inexplicable meltdown on one... chair ump. Oh, if only the chair ump had ejected Flavia, then she'd have been gifted the win rather than having to earn it by not having a mental lapse. She was so pissed she flipped him the bird on her way off the court. Nice. The entire French team was seriously incensed for that matter, vowing to file a protest.
In the next match -- featuring one Alize Cornet (French) who is just. not. ready. to. win. -- they lost their last chance to stay in the Fed Cup running when Alize got beaten pretty handily. Of course, the French team lost their collective *ahem* after that. As they ranted about the chair ump, one among their number dropped the name Zidane which surprised me. The 'Zidane ejection controversy' happened, I think, three years ago. It did happen against Italy so it is not entirely without reference. It is an indication of how angry they must feel if they are cross-referencing sports and other bitter losses.
Perhaps the chair ump did circumvent protocol in this instance but it wasn't as if Flavia spit in Amelie's water or broke her rackets or even benefited from bad line calls. There was nothing keeping Amelie from winning that third set, up 4-1. Hell, there was nothing keeping Amelie from winning the second set! Distractions happen in tennis, shake it off. Amelie has been on the tour long enough to know that and to know better.
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