Mauresmo brushes aside talk of nerves

WORLD number one Amelie Mauresmo feels she may have finally conquered her big-match nerves — just in time to do battle for the Wimbledon title with Justin Henin-Hardenne today.

The French top seed, who turned 27 earlier this week, had reached the semi-final stage in each of her last three visits to the All England Club, only to then fall short when in command of the match.

This year, however, Mauresmo maintained her composure to overcome both the challenge of former French Open champion Anastasia Myskina in the quarter-finals and then dug deep to see off the power game of 2004 Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova in an epic encounter on Centre Court.

It is something she now hopes will stand her in good stead against the number three seed.

Mauresmo declared: “It is always a learning experience every time you go out on the court. I am trying to learn from the bad moments I had, learn also from the moments where I was able to overcome these moments of tension.”

Should Mauresmo triumph against Henin-Hardenne, who retired ill during their Australian Open final at the start of the year, she would certainly be a worthy winner of a second Grand Slam title of 2006, given the tennis played here. The match-up between the pair, neither of whom are averse to the serve-volley game, is already being hailed as the perfect final.

Henin-Hardenne was runner-up at the All England Club in 2001, and then reached successive semi-finals before being struck down with the energy-sapping virus which almost ended her career.

The Belgian may be on the brink of cementing her place in history alongside the likes of Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Billy Jean King and Chris Evert with a complete collection of Grand Slam titles, but she insisted: “When I arrived here, I said step by step — now it is one more match, but I am still far away from that. I just try to stay focused on what I have to do, my practice, then my goals on the court tomorrow and we will see.”