Tauziat in sublime touch for swan-song
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Your support makes all the difference.Nathalie Tauziat was anxious to play down her chances of breaking her Grand Slam duck after clinching the DFS Classic title for the second time at Edgbaston yesterday.
The 33-year-old Frenchwoman beat Miriam Oremans 6-3, 7-5 in a delayed final to cap a perfect week of preparation for a tournament she insists will be her last.
Tauziat, who lost the Wimbledon final to Jana Novotna in 1998, will be the oldest singles player at the All England Club, but many believe her performance this week marks her out as a possible winner. However, Tauziat is determined not to let lofty ambitions spoil her swan-song on the surface she loves.
"I'm ready for Wimbledon but this year I just want to play there," she said. "I haven't set myself any goals and I'm playing for fun. Everyone says I can win Wimbledon but I don't want to put any pressure on myself."
Monday brought out the best and worst in Tauziat's game, a mixture of sublime spells of flashing returns and passing shots, and periods of crisis which threatened to hand her opponent a lifeline. Tauziat survived break points in her first two service games and grabbed the crucial break in the sixth game of the first set when Oremans double-faulted.
The favourite then raced into a seemingly unassailable 5-1 second-set lead with a brilliant display, but the cracks appeared when she first served for the match at 5-2, and the unforced errors began to flow. Tauziat started with two double-faults when she attempted to serve out a second time at 5-4 and was broken again as it was Oremans' turn to summon up some fantastic returns.
But Tauziat recovered to break back and successfully served out for the championship at the third attempt in front of a sparse crowd in the Edgbaston sunlight.
Oremans admitted she had been beaten by the better player. She said: "Today Nathalie was just too good. The match isn't over until the last game is played and I fought back, but it's a pity that my serve let me down in the end."
Tauziat, who was criticised by her fellow professionals for the revelations made in her book, Women's Tennis Stripped Bare, had a message for the next generation of players.
"Tennis is a business now but when I arrived it wasn't like this," she said. "I hope new players don't chose to play tennis because of the money but take it up for the love of the sport."
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