Mauresmo's grit vs Hardenne's revenge

Henin-Hardenne who lost Australian Open title to Mauresmo in January due to a stomach ache hopes to clinge a win against the rival in Saturday's Wimbledon final. Mauresmo is looking forward to an important first time victory.

When Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne met in a Grand Slam final less than six months ago, there was no match point or exuberant celebration. The match ended when Henin-Hardenne retired because of stomach pain trailing 6-1, 2-0 at the Australian Open in January, handing the Frenchwoman her first major title.

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The two will contend for the Wimbledon title Saturday, with Mauresmo trying to win outright this time and Henin-Hardenne bidding to complete a career Grand Slam by securing the only major championship missing from her collection.

"I think it's good," Mauresmo said. "She probably feels very happy about it also, to have an opportunity to have revenge after the final of Australia."

The third-seeded Belgian, who has won five Grand Slam titles, is doing her best to forget what happened in Melbourne. "I want to think about myself and another opportunity to win another Grand Slam and win Wimbledon for the first time." she said. "But I'm not thinking about what happened a few months ago because the situation is different. I hope we can both be in our best shape and show good tennis to the crowd."

Henin-Hardenne has won five of her nine matches against Mauresmo, but this will be their first meeting on Wimbledon and on grass. Henin-Hardenne beat Belgian rival Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-6 (4) Thursday for her 17th straight win, and 13th consecutive Grand Slam match without dropping a set. She can become the first player in the Open era to win the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back without losing a set.

More importantly, Henin-Hardenne is in line to become only the 10th woman to win all four Grand Slam titles in her career. She's won the French Open three times and U.S. Open and Australian Open once each.

"I don't have anything to prove to anyone anymore," Henin-Hardenne said. "I think I proved enough on the tennis court the fighter I am, how much I can compete. There's always a lot of determination. It's just about myself, and I hope I can win this title."

She reached her first Slam final at Wimbledon in 2001, losing to Venus Williams.

"A lot of things have changed," she said. "It's been five years. I've improved so much and grown up a lot and done great things in my career already. I was very young and not mature at all at that time."

Mauresmo, who had lost in the semifinals in her last three appearances at Wimbledon, has a reputation for tightening up and losing big matches. It looked as though that might happen again Friday when she squandered the second set after leading 3-1 and holding three break points against 2004 champion Maria Sharapova. But Mauresmo came out stronger in the final set and held on for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win.

"This is an important step for me," she said. "I found myself again in a tense situation and was able to turn it around. I'm especially proud of that. It's probably one of my most important victories."

Now Mauresmo will be part of a unique weekend for France: going for the Wimbledon title while the French soccer team plays for the World Cup title against Italy on Sunday.

"I hope it's the French week, " she said.