Hail, mighty Mauresmo!

Some of us have waited years for the great French player, Amelie Mauresmo, to win her first Grand Slam title. Known as the biggest head case on the tour (though I think she has been eclipsed in that area by a few others), Mauresmo has tended to get tight at important times and lose big matches. Now, however, she is a Grand Slam winner: She has won the 2006 Australian Open women's championship.

But, oh, the circumstances...Mauresmo's opponent was four-time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin-Hardenne, known for both her physical and mental toughness. In 2003, Henin-Hardenne played the U.S. semifinal--an epic match against Jennifer Capriati--with severe stomach cramps. She won, and said she didn't know if she would be well enough to compete in the final. She did, and she won the title.

In 2004, Henin-Hardenne contracted a virus that did her in for the entire season. Before she realized how serious her illness was, though, she went to Athens and won an Olympic gold medal (Mauresmo, by the way, was her silver medalist opponent).

Today, though, tough-as-nails Henin-Hardenne took a medical break after the beginning of the second set, and retired shortly thereafter, complaining of stomach pains. In her press conference, she said her shoulder had been hurting and she had doubled her dosage of anti-inflammatory meds. Also, she said her stomach had been hurting for a few days. All well and good, though she managed to beat Maria Sharapova in a three-set match in the semifinals.

"I had nothing left to give," Henin-Hardenne said of her retirement. People are suspicious that Henin-Hardenne, though feeling bad, retired to get out of losing miserably. Mauresmo took the first set, 6-1, and was up 2-0 when Henin-Hardenne retired. Or as one fan put it, "Mauresmo's backhand made Justine sick."

We will never know what really happened, and we are left to take Henin-Hardenne at her word, but her past record of toughing it out, and the fact that it was a Grand Slam final, makes her decision to retire seem suspect to some. On the other hand, having had a debilitating virus may have left Henin-Hardenne a weaker specimen than she used to be. At any rate, it has probably left her less likely to take risks with her health. Complicating the issue is the fact that, the day before the final, Henin-Harden said: " I never felt as good as now. Even if I played well in a couple of tournaments, I wasn't feeling physically as well as I am feeling right now."

In her interview, Henin-Hardenne gave Mauresmo--who played cleverly and beautifully--very little credit, saying instead that her illness gave her opponent plenty of time to set up perfect shots. When asked if she felt sorry for Mauresmo's getting cheated out of the great moment of a Grand Slam match point, she said "I'm first feeling sorry for myself, then I can feel sorry for her." It was honest, but it was a sharp contrast to the reserved Mauresmo, who--instead of enjoying the thrill of throwing her racquet in the air or falling to her knees--went to sit beside her injured opponent and console her.

Mauresmo told the press she had no idea her opponent was ill until she took the medical break. She did, however, reveal that on the morning she played her own quarterfinal match against Nicole Vaidisova, she woke up with a stiff neck and could not get it to move during the match. And Mauresmo's only comment regarding playing to the finish was "I was prepared to die on the court today."

For those of us who have waited so long for Mauresmo to achieve this, it was bittersweet indeed, for we wanted to see her throw her racquet in the air and take a run around the court. Fortunately, she got to do that when she won the WTA Year End Championships in Los Angeles in November.

Mauresmo's unusal final was only part of the strange circumstances. Her third round opponent, Michaella Krajicek, retired with heat illness after the first set, which Mauresmo won 6-2; and her semifinal opponent, Kim Clijsters, retired with an ankle injury at 7-5, 2-6, 2-3.

Odd though it was, it was still a Grand Slam victory. Mauresmo has one of the most beautiful games in women's tennis--superb court movement, an outstanding one-handed backhand, an amazing variety of shots, and a court grace than cannot be taught. Mauresmo also has a lot of class, and her fans are thrilled to see her finally achieve what has eluded her for so long.