WTA Brisbane - Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) vs Marion Bartoli (FRA)
Interesting match between two French players in one of the semi finals
of this tournaments. Amelie Mauresmo surprised everyone by taking out
Ana Ivanovic, the number one seed of this tournament and main favorite
to win the title. The French appeared confident, motivated and finally
decided to use all her variation of slices and spins to drive Ivanovic
crazy and then finish the points with some phenomenal overheads that
only she can do so well. Mauresmo celebrated effusively at the end of
the match and that's normal. After so many struggles, she finally had a
big win and this may have been what she was looking for to come back to
her real level. But if there is something she has never lacked, even
during her slump, is her superiority over her country mates. In fact,
she is 17-2 since 2006 against fellow French players and even during
her horrible season of 2008, she still went 6-1 against French players,
including two wins and no losses against Alize Cornet, a Top 20 player.
With confidence, Amelie has one of the best serves in the circuit, a
technically perfect backhand and an all-court style, capable of
adapting to every kind of player.
Her opponent for this semi final will be Marion Bartoli, who
has never defeated Amelie before, with Mauresmo having won the four
matches between them. Bartoli had a very easy draw this week, as she
faced an Australian wild card, Melinda Czink and Tathiana Garbin in the
previous rounds. Bartoli's serve has been struggling this week and she
has committed 7 and 8 double faults on her last two matches. But the
big edge of Mauresmo in this matchup is clearly the movement on court.
Mauresmo is one of the best movers in the circuit, while Bartoli, even
though she is fitter this season still lacks the natural skills of
Mauresmo in terms of later movement and ability to hit well the ball in
movement. The two handed style of Bartoli in both wings won't help her
neither, as with the variation of Mauresmo working well, there isn't
much Bartoli will be able to do in the baseline. Also Bartoli likes to
hit the ball well inside the baseline, something Mauresmo won't let
her, as Amelie possesses one the most penetrative ground strokes of the
circuit when confident, especially on her backhand side.
I expect Mauresmo to come to the court extremely confident
after such a big win over Ivanovic and to use the same tactic that she
used yesterday. Bartoli struggles in moving into the forecourt and
Mauresmo will mix slices with top spin shots and Bartoli won't have any
answers for that. I expect Mauresmo to continue her superiority against
her country mates in here. Take Mauresmo to win.
Regular Play on Amelie Mauresmo