The Tricolors are on fire

French women play flawlessly at the WTA Championship

Two-time winner of the WTA Championships, former world number one, Belgian Kim Clijsters, performs unsuccessfully at the final tournament of 2005. She suffered a second defeat in a row, and again from a French tennis player. Following Marie Pierce, Amelie Mauresmo became Clijsters' offender - 6:3, 7:6 (7:4). However, after two days of play, the Belgian still had a chance of reaching the semi-finals. To continue the fight for the title, she needed Elena Dementieva to defeat Mauresmo last night, Moscow time, then Pearce would prevail in the French derby, and Clijsters herself, in turn, would have to beat the Russian. In this case, Pierce will take first place in the group, and the Belgian, Russian and Mauresmo will claim second place. Next you will have to calculate the ratio of parties.

The Frenchwoman has not been as happy about a victory for a long time as she was last Tuesday. Amelie can be understood, because since 2002, in seven head-to-head meetings with Clijsters, she always left the court as a loser. Moreover, in the last two matches, in the final of the 2003 WTA Championship and at this season’s tournament in Miami, Mauresmo was able to take only three games from her opponent in four games. The Belgian had a huge advantage, which is uncharacteristic for matches between tennis players of such a high level. However, yesterday Amelie surpassed her opponent in all respects. Although Kim resisted desperately. Losing 3:5 in the second game, she equalized the score and brought the set to a tiebreaker, where success was still on the Frenchwoman’s side. Mauresmo succeeded in such a difficult element of the game as implementing exits to the net. The Frenchwoman escalated the game 19 times, and in 16 cases this brought her points. Clijsters had 36 unforced errors throughout the match, which was too much for two sets.

Pierce more than confidently prevailed over Dementieva - 6:2, 6:3. The course of the fight in this match contrasted sharply with how the opponents played this season - in the semifinals of the US Open and in the decisive battle for the Fed Cup. Both in New York and Paris, the confrontation between these girls lasted three games, with the only difference being that Pierce celebrated the victory overseas, and in the French capital, the main character of that final, Dementieva, earned the most important point for Russia. In Los Angeles, alas, Marie was noticeably superior to Elena and did not give her the slightest opportunity to seize the initiative in the match.

Pierce celebrated a serious anniversary - her 500th victory in fights at WTA tournaments. Among currently active tennis players, only American Lindsay Davenport (695) and Spaniard Conchita Martinez (739) playing in Los Angeles have more. “Now I can retire from big-time sports,” Pierce said. “I didn’t even know that it was my anniversary,” the journalists suggested. Five hundred victories - this figure is impressive, with such indicators you can retire with a clear conscience. After all, I’m already spending my seventeenth season on the BTA tour.” It seems that Pierce was just joking about retiring from her career, because she had never shown such a desire before, she is now in excellent shape for her 30 years, and the injuries that previously tormented the athlete have receded.

“The day before I watched the match between Pierce and Clijsters and immediately realized that the French woman was in perfect order here,” Dementieva admitted. - She played the meeting with me even better than her first game in Los Angeles. I couldn't do anything about Marie. I wasn’t playing my best tennis, but Pierce was incredibly good.” We can definitely talk about the mistake of the organizers who put the Mauresmo - Dementiev match on the schedule of the third gaming day of the “black” group. Indeed, in the event of a Russian defeat, the remaining two fights Clijsters - Dementieva and Mauresmo - Pierce have no sporting significance.

In the “green” quartet, Davenport was stronger than Patty Schneider - 6:3, 7:5. Thus, Lindsay had two victories, and the Swiss tennis player had two defeats. If Davenport cannot cope with Sharapova, and Nadezhda Petrova finally finishes off Schneider, then at the end of the tournament in this group a triple twist between the leaders is theoretically possible. Although, of course, Sharapova and the American are considered the clear favorites here.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY