After Italy, Mauresmo's France Ready To Defend Title
11 Jul 2004 - Circolo Tennis Rimini, Rimini, ITA - Nick Rigillo - ITA v FRA
After Italy, Mauresmo's France Ready To Defend Title
Defending champion France is looking forward to the World Group Semifinals
after defeating Italy in Rimini courtesy of yet another solid performance
from its star player, Amelie Mauresmo.
The world's number three sealed Italy's fate with a comfortable 76(2) 62
victory over Francesca Schiavone in the first of Sunday's reverse singles
rubbers, a day after ridding herself of Silvia Farina Elia in straight sets
during the opening match in the Italian beach resort.
Mary Pierce had previously helped put France firmly in control in their
quarterfinal tie on Saturday by winning her singles match against Schiavone
63 64.
Italy scored a consolation point in the second reverse singles, with Silvia
Farina Elia defeating Emilie Loit, a late replacement for Mary Pierce, 63 26
62, and then added a further point through Tathiana Garbin and Roberta Vinci,
who defeated Mary Pierce and Tatiana Golovin, making her Fed Cup debut, 60
76(5), to bring the final score to 3-2.
France joins Russia and Austria in the semifinals in November, along with the
winner of the quarterfinal tie between Spain and Belgium.
And French captain Guy Forget hopes his team may be given the chance to
defend the title in front of 'les bleus' traditionally passionate home crowd.
"It would be great to play at home, with the fans right behind us," said
Forget, who has picked Russia as the overall favourites.
"They just seem to be getting better and better by the week," he said
In the meantime, the captain was clearly relishing in Sunday's victory.
"It's always nice to relax on a Sunday afternoon," Forget said. "But if the
tie turned out to be easier than we had anticipated, it is only because we
took all of our matches very seriously," the captain said.
His words were echoed by Mauresmo, the hero of the day in Rimini.
"We had prepared very well for this, that's why we made it look easy," the
French star player said.
In fact, despite the statistics, Mauresmo had to work hard in Rimini to
secure her 12th consecutive Fed Cup singles win against Schiavone, Italy's
number one player, to whom she had lost as recently as last April in Warsaw.
The Italian appeared by far the more determined of the two during the opening
games of the third and decisive rubber, immediately breaking Mauresmo's
service and continuing to force the Frenchwoman on the defensive to give
Italy an early 2-0 lead.
And despite Mauresmo's rapid comeback, Schiavone was able to eliminate a 5-2
deficit and force the Frenchwoman to a tie break, thereby livening up the
match for the benefit of the home crowd.
In spite of struggling to clinch the first set, Mauresmo's superior class
eventually shone through, allowing her to win the second set 6 2 in 45
minutes.
"Except for the first two games, when she played very well, I was pretty much
in control," Mauresmo said after the match. "Maybe I shouldn't have allowed
her to fight back, but you can't always play the perfect match," she added.
Forget was clearly impressed with her number one player's performance on
Rimini's red clay.
"She had lost to Schiavone on clay only a few weeks ago and she had to secure
the winning point against a player who had little to lose. But she
concentrated hard and I was very happy with how she played today,"
the captain said.
Despite failing to keep Italy in the tie, Schiavone was satisfied with her
performance against one of the world's strongest players.
"It was a hard fought match, and although the result says she won the second
set 62, we were always very close," Schiavone said.
"I gave it all, but in the end it was her greater experience that gave her
the edge," the 24-year-old Italian said.
And while Farina identified her teammate's defeat in the first set tie break
as the turning point of the quarterfinals, Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti
pointed his finger at Schiavone's first defeat, against Pierce on Saturday.
"That game was the key. Pierce turned out to be a winning choice by France,"
Barazzutti said.
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