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 form. I am not too much interested in where I am in the rankings but I want to be able to win tournaments again. My last title was in Antwerp in 2007 and quite frankly I miss all that. I really want to once again be playing in big tournaments feeling that I can win them by beating the best players…For the moment I am not looking past next year. It all depends on how it goes. If it is a repeat of what happened in 2008, that will be it for me. But if I can succeed to do what I have set out to do we will see.”…

Mauresmo is definitely still in excellent shape. Look at those arms in the picture above! The picture is from September 22, 2008 in Beijing when she played against Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia at the 2008 China Open. Mauresmo lost the match with 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Source: Tennis-X

Image Credit: Newscom

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 for long if she doesn’t pull her act together. Surprisingly enough, guess who else is still with us on our Wimbledon journey. Oh posh, you’ll never guess. Amelie Mauresmo!

Enjoy it while you can, however, because her third round opponent is Serena Williams. Not saying Mauresmo can’t win, I’m just saying she won’t be with us much longer.

Svetlana Kuznetsova bounced back nicely after her near-disaster in the first round and put together a simple straight-set victory over Kateryna Bondarenko.

Oh, and Roger Federer breezed through his second round match too. Robin Soderling, the guy that was potential trouble for the King, pushed Roger to a tiebreak in the third set but it was far too little far too late. Should both win in the third round, though, we’ll be having us a Hewitt-Federer match-up. Yay!…?

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.
- World number one Roger Federer dropped the first set in a tiebreak but then blasted Albert Montanes out of the water in the next three sets to move into the third round.
- Nikolay Davydenko ousted Marat Safin handily in straight sets.
- Lleyton Hewitt had no problem with Mardy Fish, beating him 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
- Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Devilder in straight sets, blanking Devilder in the second.
- Dinara Safina bageled Magdalena Rybarikova in the first set and followed it up with a 6-1 second set to move into the third round.
- Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva both moved on in straight sets.
- Amelie Mauresmo was dumped out of the tournament by Carla Suarez Navarro.

And that’s pretty much it. Probably the most impressive showing in that whole list (aside of the ridiculously dominant performances in some of the matches on the women’s side) was Federer’s shut down of Montanes after losing a tight first set.

I could say that is championship material, but we all already know that, don’t we?

(Image: Newscom)
Roger Federer lines up a backhand against Albert Montanes.

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 Olga Savchuk. Mauresmo won the first set 7-5, lost the second 4-6 and then stormed back in the third with a 6-1 showing.

Dinara Safina won in straight sets as did Nikolay Davydenko on the men’s side. A total of 43 matches were suspended Tuesday…I wonder what the record is? Hey, I can’t help it. I used to work in sports information, finding obscure, random records that don’t pertain to anything useful was a way of life!

(Image: Newscom)
Amelie Mauresmo stretches out for a forehand in the first round of the French Open.

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 less time…obviously. A win can always come quicker, better and easier.

Sharapova is the top-ranked player left in the tournament. Amelie Mauresmo is through to the quarterfinals after a hairy 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) three-setter. I’d forgotten Mauresmo was still playing on the courts; she’s been utterly non-existant for the past couple years.

And Lindsay Davenport is through to the quarterfinals in a three-set match as well, albeit a little easier one (6-4, 3-6, 6-4). Evidently taking the game the distance was the order of business at Amelia Island.

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 can’t do the math, that’s not enough.

Is Mauresmo on the verge of quitting? I think she might be. She’s 28 years old; she’s not winning; she’s not even really existing in the world of tennis anymore. If she’s not on the verge of quitting, she’s on the verge of settling into the tennis cellar if she can’t pull something out soon.