Mauresmo: It’s French for Disappointing

Adding the inspirational force of former champion Yannick Noah to the camp and cause wasn’t enough for Amelie Mauresmo this year at the French Open.

What’s next? Channeling the spirit of Suzanne Lenglen? Or conducting an exorcism on Court Philippe Chatrier, the scene of so many of Mauresmo’s past disappointments?

The Frenchwoman’s latest setback came Saturday in the third round against Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Montenegro. The fast-rising 17-year-old defeated the third-seeded Mauresmo, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in 2 hours 8 minutes.

There is a temptation to compare Mauresmo’s problems at Roland Garros to Tim Henman’s difficulties at Wimbledon, but that would be unfair to Henman. The Briton, at least, has reached the semifinals four times at Wimbledon, whereas Mauresmo has reached the French Open quarterfinals twice.

“Of course, I wanted to go further in the tournament,” she said. “What can I say? It’s a big disappointment of course. ... In the past I had some bad matches. But I don’t think that was the case” Saturday.

Mauresmo, who double-faulted 10 times, obviously had not seen footage of the final game. She committed two unforced errors, netted a forehand under pressure and double-faulted on Ivanovic’s first match point, hitting a weak second serve into the net.

The eighth game of the last set featured some unexpected drama. Ivanovic suddenly requested a visit from the trainer, delaying the match for a few minutes.

“I had problems with breathing. I felt really dizzy,” she said. “I felt really weak, so I thought I had to call my trainer straightaway to see if everything is OK.”

Ivanovic won’t have much time to celebrate as she will play Francesca Schiavone of Italy today in the fourth round. “You just have like a few minutes, hours to be happy about what happened today,” she said.

The youngster is already 6 feet tall. Her father, Miroslav, is nearly 6-5, and once played professional basketball in the second league in Yugoslavia, she said. Ivanovic fits in quite nicely with all the other tall players on the tour: Maria Sharapova, Elena Bovina, Nadia Petrova.

“A lot of these Russian girls, and a lot of the girls in general, are getting a lot bigger than they used to be,” said Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica, who lost in the third round Saturday. “Five years ago when I started playing on the tour, I think I was probably average height, a little under 5-7. I’m by no means tall but I’m also not short in real life.

“On the tour, in the locker room, I’m looking shorter and shorter every day.”

The women’s fourth round will feature six Russians and just one American: top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, who faces No. 14 Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

Irvin came within a set of joining Davenport in the fourth round but faded against No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova, losing to the Russian, 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.

Irvin sees a common thread contributing to the Russians’ success -- drive and ambition.

“It’s just incredible determination and desire on their part,” Irvin said. “... I think in some of these other countries tennis is more of a way out, more a way to make an incredible living that they don’t have the opportunity to do otherwise.”

Kuznetsova agreed, but spoke of an often risky gamble.

“If you make sport, you don’t have nothing else,” she said. “If you lose it, what do you do after? You can go give classes, charge maybe 15, 20 bucks an hour and you spend like this playing with old men, coaching old people or kids.”

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The best men’s match of the day featured former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain against Australian Open champion Marat Safin of Russia in the third round. The third-seeded Safin played his best match in months, defeating Ferrero, 7-6 (5), 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (2).

He is on a 10-match winning streak at the Grand Slams in 2005 and broke through against Ferrero after two bitter losses to him on clay earlier this year.

So often Safin is the master of his own destiny and you can tell how things are going when he starts speaking to himself during the match.

“Well, it’s a one-man conversation,” he said. “Nobody’s answering. Which is good.”