Amelie Mauresmo can now resume playing good tennis–she won’t have to worry about the French Open for at least another 52 weeks.

In yet another spectacular crash-and-burn from France’s two-time Grand Slam champion, Mauresmo–who has never handled the pressure of playing on home soil in the world’s biggest claycourt tournament–tumbled out of this year’s Roland Garros competition with a tame 6-4, 6-3 loss to Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Mauresmo had entered Paris as the 16th seed in a women’s field likely to unearth a surprise semifinalist, but the dangerous floater didn’t look very threatening in a straight-set defeat on Court Philippe Chatrier.

In looking at the trajectory of Mauresmo’s career, it’s impossible to deny the fact that this talented, graceful performer–whose best tennis carried her to Australian Open and Wimbledon championships in a dominating 2006 season–feels the weight of France on her strong yet inadequate shoulders whenever she steps on the terre battue of Paris. When she rocketed to the top of the women’s game in that 2006 campaign, Mauresmo couldn’t get out of the round of 16 at Roland Garros. In 2002, when she reached the quarterfinals or better at the year’s other three major tournaments, the 29-year-old was felled at the French Open in the very same round of 16. A longtime resident of the top 5 and a participant in women’s singles competition at Roland Garros since 1995 (at age 15), Mauresmo has never reached the semifinals on the red clay of her homeland. Two modest quarterfinal appearances (in 2003 and 2004) represent her very best showings in front of eager and expectant crowds who have learned to be disappointed by their championship-winning woman. As has been the case with so many French tennis players through the years–think Henri Leconte, Guy Forget, Richard Gasquet, and Gael Monfils, with Mary Pierce teasingly sitting on the boundary of such a categorization–Mauresmo offers an attractive style of play, otherwise known as “Gallic flair” (a sadly stereotypical phrase used far too automatically in the world of French tennis), but without the level of results worthy of her talents.

Now that the grass-court season lies ahead for her, Mauresmo–whose attacking-oriented tennis yields better results on the lawns of England–will try to push her demons aside at the cozy confines of Wimbledon. Thoughts of suburban London might comfort this enigmatic Frenchwoman, but any talk of Wimbledon won’t comfort French tennis fans who had their hearts broken on the very first day of their coveted Grand Slam tournament.

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Other Notable Developments From Day 1 – News Summary

Another upset emerged in the women’s field, as 19th-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi–a quarterfinalist at last year’s French Open–lost in three sets to Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-2. Given the wide-open nature of the women’s draw, the absence of any seeded players gives other unheralded performers an even better chance to play deep into the second week and pick up an unexpectedly large paycheck that could compensate for years of meager winnings in lower-rung events.

On the men’s side, third-seeded Andy Murray made a very strong statement in his first-round match against cagey Argentine veteran Juan Ignacio Chela. Despite a lack of claycourt credentials, the skilled Scotsman was able to polish off an opponent who figured to provide the world No. 3 with a much tougher test. Murray roared past Chela, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, in a performance that–if replicated in the coming days–will have Murray sitting in the semifinals for a showdown against Rafael Nadal.

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