The women's finals of the 2006 Australian Open have just concluded and my favourite from the start Justine Henin Hardenne retired half way through the match against Amelie Mauresmo citing an upset stomach. Now Justine has been my favourite from a couple of years, but today was a .. well .. its hard for me to say disappointment .. but sadly, it was. Mauresmo was mowing through Henin-Hardenne, having won the first set 6-1 and looked well set to capture the second one too. The match was all but decided when Justine stopped play due to being unwell.
Two things bother me here .. aside from the fact that Justine didnt look like she had any problem earlier in the game (but what do we see). One is that if it was just an upset stomach, then she could have pulled through the rest of the match and given her opponent a fair and well deserved win. Second is that in her speech during the ceremony, she apologised to the fans but not to Mauresmo .. I feel sorry for her .. she was winning convincingly and fairly. To have won your first Grand Slam in this fashion would be like an irritating fly in her chardonnay for sure.
Posted by anya at January 27, 2006 09:50 PMThat was terrible. Mauresmo even 'won' the semi-final against Clijsters the same way. It is good to finally win her first grand slam after so many years, but, it doesn't seem fair to Mauresmo to win this way.
Posted by: Parag at January 28, 2006 08:25 PM