The Hindu : Sport : Madame Butterfly masters rivals with steely resolve

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Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006

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Sport

Madame Butterfly masters rivals with steely resolve

Mauresmo has shown that a feeble mind is capable of the ultimate makeover, writes Rohit Brijnath

CHOKER NO MORE: Amelie Mauresmo's resurgence is further proof that athletes are not just born mentally tough, they can be made as well. — PHOTO: AP

Up there in the stands, his hair mowed, his face having lost its famished look, the camera caught Ivan Lendl watching Amelie Mauresmo outplaying Serena Williams on Monday. Did he, you wonder, look at the Frenchwoman and for a fleeting moment recognise in her what he'd once seen in himself. A player transformed.

If all year, Agassi has been tennis' chosen story, then Mauresmo is close behind in the uplifting stakes. If Agassi is proof that an athlete can renovate his soul, then she demonstrated that a feeble mind is capable of a makeover.

Mauresmo choked beautifully. No matter. So did Agassi, in two French Open finals to Andres Gomez and Jim Courier. Lendl choked. Big time. He lost his first four Grand Slam finals and six of the first seven. He then won seven of his next 12. The worm turned and he became a butterfly. Well, in a manner of speaking.

New force unleashed

The lithe, gliding Mauresmo has a lot of the butterfly to her these days, for it appears something beautiful within her has finally been released. As if after a long, painful search, her gleeful spirit has been found and unleashed.

Mauresmo was always a very good player, till it mattered. She had, before Monday, beaten Serena once, in 10 encounters; she had lost seven straight to Clijsters once. In the early rounds of Slams she could be impeccable; put her in the quarters and semis and she magnificently imploded.

Choker is almost the harshest tag in sport, a taunt just short of physical coward. To shrink in pressure's embrace, or lack determination, is like some hideous sin. Conversely, self-assured athletes, like the Williams sisters, whose confident walk suggests ownership of the ground, who handle challenges with a seemingly natural poise, are to be envied.

To see the ferocious response of a Williams, or a Schumacher, to adversity is to easily assume mentally-tough athletes are born that way, triumphs of superior genetics. But Mauresmo is important to us for she is further proof that is not necessarily the case. Her conversion to champion is evidence that toughness can also be acquired.

Among the oddities of sport is that we tend to analyse failure more intensely than we do success. Yet valuable indicators are found in success, even for chokers, who collapse in big matches but are not completely unfamiliar with winning. One suggestion sports psychologist Sandy Gordon gives struggling athletes is to revisit the times they had success, and remember what they were thinking at that time, what emotions they felt, what their behaviour was. And try to replicate it.

Some athletes may simply opt for a tactical change, says Gordon, some work to calm down in vital moments, some look to hype themselves up. Either way, gifted athletes are identified by their self-awareness, and desire to learn.

Composure is the key

The rapid education of Amelie Mauresmo, for instance, was evident again on Monday. When she lost the second set to Serena 6-0, she did what she may not have been able to last year. She held on to her composure, and won. As she said later, "Maybe in these key moments I don't maybe panic, or I'm just trying to keep it really loose and relaxed."

It's working. Mauresmo won the Australian Open this year. Then Wimbledon. She's No. 1. She's broken her hoodoo against Serena. She has won her last three against Clijsters. Two of the last three versus Justine Henin-Hardenne.

She may not win this Open, but there's something delightful in watching a choker having the women's game in a stranglehold. It's enough to even make old ironface Ivan break into a smile.

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