Mauresmo Returns for Warsaw Title Defense

April 25, 2004

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Mauresmo Returns for Warsaw Title Defense

WARSAW, Poland - Amelie Mauresmo returns to WTA Tour action this week as she looks to defend her title as the top seed at the J & S Cup in Warsaw. Mauresmo, who scored two big victories over the weekend to lead France into the quarterfinals in Fed Cup play, will be playing in WTA Tour action for the first time since reaching the final at Amelia Island three weeks ago. Mauresmo, who fell to Lindsay Davenport in the championship match at the Bausch & Lomb Championship, suffered a lower back strain during the week and was forced to withdraw from a scheduled trip to Charleston the following week.

Last year, Mauresmo defeated Venus Williams in the Warsaw final when the American was forced to retire in the third set, handing Mauresmo her first title of the year. This year, Mauresmo is again looking for her first title and will face either Gisela Dulko or Eleni Daniilidou in the second round.

Williams, who suffered from an abdominal injury during that championship match with Mauresmo, returns to Warsaw looking to reach the final for the second straight year. Williams is one of the hottest players on clay right now, winning her first title of the year two weeks ago in Charleston and helping guide the United States to the quarterfinals in Fed Cup play with two victories on the clay in Slovenia.

Williams - the No.2 seed this week - could have a potentially tough second round opponent as she awaits the winner of Fabiola Zuluaga and Anabel Medina Garrigues. Zuluaga has five career clay court titles, including her fourth Bogota title she won earlier this year in her home country.

Memphis winner Vera Zvonareva, whose victory against Australia clinched the Fed Cup tie for Russia on Sunday, will look for her second title of the year and first on clay as the No.3 seed. Zvonareva is joined by Fed Cup teammate and No.4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is a two-time finalist this year on the WTA Tour.

This is the ninth year of the J & S Cup, which began in 1995 with Barbara Paulus defeating Alexandra Fausai for the inaugural title. Paulus is one of two players to capture the Warsaw title on two separate occasions, also winning in 1997. Henrieta Nagyova is the only other multiple title winner, capturing the championship in 1996 and 2000. Other former champions include Conchita Martinez (1998), Cristina Torrens Valero (1999) and Elena Bovina (2002).

Amélie/Venus final would be fantastic but a lot of matches yet to be played...

Hope both girls continue to beat injury and play well!

Thanks Knizzle for the article.

Momo :D

Couldn't agree more with our Leader Sonja!

Good luck to Momo.
She will need it in the second round as Dulko and Daniilidou are definitely tough.
Good luck to Venus.
She will need it even more in the second round. She faces a tough opponent in the second round(Zuluaga if she gets through first is very tough on clay). If it was late in the tournament there is no worries for Venus, but she struggles almost always early with lack of concentration.

Anyway, hope both get through, and we can have a Momo-Vee final, and hopefully no injuries throughout this tourny!

Last year, Mauresmo defeated Venus Williams in the Warsaw final when the American was forced to retire in the third set, handing Mauresmo her first title of the year. This year, Mauresmo is again looking for her first title and will face either Gisela Dulko or Eleni Daniilidou in the second round.


Wrong. Venus Williams retired in the final against Mauresmo. But, I guess accuracy is a strange concept in sports reporting. :rolleyes: Atleast this article mentions that Venus was forced to retire, but somehow construes this as a defeat.

Wrong. Venus Williams retired in the final against Mauresmo. But, I guess accuracy is a strange concept in sports reporting. :rolleyes: Atleast this article mentions that Venus was forced to retire, but somehow construes this as a defeat.
It goes down as a L for Venus. At least they mentioned that she retired the match.

I agree it's a loss to Venus, but that doesn't necessarily imply that Amelie defeated Venus. Venus lost (due) to injury.

I agree it's a loss to Venus, but that doesn't necessarily imply that Amelie defeated Venus. Venus lost (due) to injury.
You know I agree. I thought Venus would win in 2 sets if she hadn't injured herself although she wasn't playing her best tennis.

You know I agree. I thought Venus would win in 2 sets if she hadn't injured herself although she wasn't playing her best tennis.
I know. ;)

Go Amelie, prove to WTA that Venus is unworthy of her seedings, just like you said:)

Get over it guys. A walkover does not count on the record as a win/loss, but a retirement does. Simple as that.

OTOH, we all know that a victory by a retirement is not conclusive of who was playing better or who would win next time. Then again, many wins where there is not a retirement are also like that, e.g if someone chokes with nerves, or someone gets hurt but plays to the end without retiring, or someone is playing better but simply runs out of gas because of tiredness from a previous match.

In some cases of a win by a retirement, as in Molik's win over Kim in the Hopman Cup, it was pretty even up to the retirement. In other matches, the person who retired would have been thrashed anyway. Rarely, but occasionally, the winner would have lost badly if the loser had not been injured. We all understand these things. Everyone on this board is an incredibly sophisticated aficianado of tennis. ;)

Get over it guys. A walkover does not count on the record as a win/loss, but a retirement does. Simple as that.

OTOH, we all know that a victory by a retirement is not conclusive of who was playing better or who would win next time. Then again, many wins where there is not a retirement are also like that, e.g if someone chokes with nerves, or someone gets hurt but plays to the end without retiring, or someone is playing better but simply runs out of gas because of tiredness from a previous match.

In some cases of a win by a retirement, as in Molik's win over Kim in the Hopman Cup, it was pretty even up to the retirement. In other matches, the person who retired would have been thrashed anyway. Rarely, but occasionally, the winner would have lost badly if the loser had not been injured. We all understand these things. Everyone on this board is an incredibly sophisticated aficianado of tennis. ;)

Nobody, atleast as far as I know, is contesting the fact that Amelie won or Venus lost. That's ofcourse why they gave Amelie her winner's trophy and Venus her runner up. But, as you mentioned, without seeing the conclusion of the match, one can't conclude whether Amelie defeated Venus or vice versa. Amelie won? Yes, because Venus couldn't complete the match due to injury. Did Venus lose? Yes, she lost the match because she couldn't complete it due to injury. But, did Amelie beat Venus? We don't have enough information, before the conclusion of the match, to conclude one way or the other. In short, Venus lost to injury, Amelie won because Venus lost to injury and none of them defeated the other.

:worship: :bounce: SILVIA AND MOMO, GOOD LUCK IN WARSAW !!!! :bounce: :worship:

After reading all your arguments of who beat whom last year (totally inconclusive ‘cause it’s worthless to discuss what would have happened if…), my whish is that none of the players get injured!! We want to watch good matches!

Good luck Amélie! :D

good luck to momo!

Best of Luck to all the players, :). I just want all of them to not get injured...at this point in time...I would love to see Venus & Kristina(I don't think she plays till next week tho) kick butt but I don't want them to be injured for RG.

If Amélie has the trophy sitting in her trophy cabinet that means she won the tournament. This arguement is totally pointless - nobody is contesting that Serena shouldn't be Wimbeldon Champion because Venus was injured playing that match. That's almost exactly the same scenario except that Venus decided to finish the match because it was a Grand Slam final.

I don’t think Knizzle created the thread to quibble over the details. We all know Venus had to retire due to injury. Each person will believe what they like about what might have been the outcome of the match. The important thing is that both girls are back, healthy, playing, and winning! I’d love to see a final between the two of them and I think both of them are thrilled just to be healthy and playing again.