France’s Amelie Mauresmo is thinking about hanging up her racket and retiring from tennis.  The former No. 1 is currently ranked 20th in the world but has decided against participating in her last two tournaments this season in Linz and Luxembourg.

At 30 years old, Mauresmo has won two Grand Slams – the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 – which is a great accomplishment.  On her website she wrote: “Since I came back from the U.S. Open, I’ve been trying to practice but I can’t find again the desire to come back to competition. I don’t want to rush or …read more

29 year-old and former number 1 women’s tennis player Amelie Mauresmo says she is not retiring. She contemplated it, but is going to give it another shot for 2009.
“I was not that far from packing it all in because I was so far away from getting back to the level that I wanted to play at,” Mauresmo told L’Equipe sports daily. “But I am not the kind to take hasty decisions and so I though it over and decided to continue playing. I want to prove to myself that I am strong enough to get back to my best …read more

It was close. Awfully close. Way too close for my liking – I can only imagine what Ana Ivanovic thought after barely surviving a 6-7, 7-6, 10-8 second round match with Nathalie Dechy at Wimbledon.
I followed it closely on the computer until it was 7-all in the third set. Then I had to go to work. I tried throwing a childish temper tantrum, but when you’re the one that knows you have to force yourself into going to work – well – temper tantrums just don’t get very far at all.
So Ivanovic is still with us. Although she won’t be …read more

So many amazing things happened today at the French Open I don’t know where to start. Okay, for some of the players, it wasn’t so amazing, but I’m a spectator and a blogger for a reason…to not care about how the players who lost felt except for when it’s convenient for me to feel for them.
Here’s the quick rundown of what happened today in Paris:
- Bye-bye James Blake. The American got ousted in the second round by Ernests Gulbis in four sets.
- Venus Williams overcame 25 unforced errors to beat Selima Sfar 6-2, 6-4 and move into the third round.
- …read more

The first round at Roland Garros has been disrupted by rain for the past three days. I keep hopping online when I get home from work in anticipation of big winners and unexpected losers. With all the rain delays, the tennis action in Paris hasn’t even gotten out of the first round yet.
Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal played nine minutes of his first match before rain suspended play, and Maria Sharapova had her match postponed until tomorrow.
Amelie Mauresmo (she’s still playing? She dropped off the radar so long ago, I’ve forgotten about her.) made it through a tough three-set match …read more

It wasn’t pretty and it certainly wasn’t short but Maria Sharapova managed to eke through a tough third round at the Bausch & Lomb Championships against Anabel Medina Garrigues.
Three set and three and a half hours later, Sharapova had survived a clay court test. It was just the thing she had been looking for – and probably needing – but it almost had a different outcome than she wanted.
Sharapova won the first set 7-6(3), lost the second 5-7 and then won the third 7-6(1). A lot of close sets for something that could have had the same outcome in …read more

It’s hard to keep on keeping on when there aren’t any results to show for it. That’s how former world number one Amelie Mauresmo feels these days.
Mauresmo exited the Qatar Open this week in the second round with a 7-6, 7-5 loss to Tamarine Tanasugarn. Tama-T who? Exactly. Suffice it to say it isn’t taking top 25 players to punch Mauresmo’s tickets out of tournaments.
“I sometimes ask myself what the hell I’m doing [playing] in front of half-empty stands,” said the world number 29.
Mauresmo has won only eight matches since losing her Wimbledon singles title last July. For those who …read more