Mauresmo's French Open warning

Amelie Mauresmo did yesterday what only Steffi Graf and Monica Seles had done before her. The Frenchwoman won the Italian Open a week after claiming the German Open title.

Amelie Mauresmo did yesterday what only Steffi Graf and Monica Seles had done before her. The Frenchwoman won the Italian Open a week after claiming the German Open title.

Mauresmo came back from a set down and saved a match point before beating Jennifer Capriati 3–6, 6–3, 7–6 (6).

When Graf accomplished the feat in 1987 and Seles repeated it in 1990, both went on to win the French Open.

Mauresmo will certainly be one of the big favourites when this year's tournament begins in Paris a week from Monday. There is no exact science to determine if the clay–court tuneup victories will help her in Roland Garros, however.

"I hope, we'll see. Of course it gives you a lot of confidence to win these kind of matches, especially in the final," Mauresmo said. "Next week I want to rest a bit and then there's Roland Garros. I hope to carry on like this."

Mauresmo had finished runner–up three of the past four years in Rome and she did not win Sunday's match until late in the third–set tiebreaker.

"It was so close," Mauresmo said. "When you get to the third–set tiebreaker, you don't really know what is going to happen. You just hang in there, go for it if you have the opportunity, and I felt that's what I did."

Mauresmo closed out the match on her second match point, when a Capriati backhand sailed long after a long rally. "I felt that I had some more energy left than she did," Mauresmo said. "It was a very intense match, very long and very intense from the beginning. The level was unbelievable from the first game."

Capriati made the final for the first time in 11 appearances at Foro Italico. She made her European debut here in 1990 at the age of 14, losing to Gabriela Sabatini in the quarter-finals.

"I felt like we were both playing unbelievable tennis and I didn't lose, she had to win the match," Capriati said. "I don't feel that bad right now. It was just a really fantastic match. That's what I thrive for and that's what I play for, these kind of matches."

Capriati is also striving to get in form for Paris. "If I can just keep it going and keep working hard, I feel like I want to just really keep fighting and start winning these matches."

Last week, Mauresmo beat Capriati 6–2, 6–0 in the Berlin semi-finals. "Yesterday was a big step for me," Capriati said, referring to her straight–set semifinal win against Serena Williams. "Even today, to come back after losing to (Mauresmo) last week so easily."

The American saved Mauresmo's first match point with an impressive running, forehand crosscourt passing shot. Capriati had a match point on Mauresmo's serve while leading 5–4 in the third set and hit a forehand long. The match had a long feel to it from the start, with Capriati winning a 28–stroke rally in the first game. Capriati produced her first great forehand passing shot of the day to break serve and take a 5–3 lead, then served out the first set.

In the second set, Mauresmo stepped up her game and broke to go up 3–1. With Capriati spraying several forehands long or into the net, Mauresmo maintained the advantage and forced a third set.

Mauresmo also needed three sets to beat local favorite Silvia Farina Elia of Italy in the quarterfinals. In Saturday's semifinals, she routed No. 8 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6–3, 6–3.

Mauresmo took home a winner's check of US$189,000 and dedicated the victory to her father, who died in March of cancer.