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Vaidisova dethrones gloomy Mauresmo

Amelie Mauresmo of France returns the ball to Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic in London on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP

Amelie Mauresmo is desperately hoping her heart-breaking Wimbledon exit will not signal a return to the bad old days of demoralizing self-doubt.

The reigning champion was knocked out of this year's championship in the fourth round by Czech teenager Nicola Vaidisova on Tuesday, a result which followed a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open, where she was also defending champion, and a third round defeat at Roland Garros.

The 27-year-old had also missed two months of the season to recover from an appendix operation.

"You never know how you are going to improve, how you are going to get the confidence back," said the world No. 4. "It's always few details, a few shots here and there and then the confidence can get back. Unfortunately it was not the case today. Sometimes it can go quickly. But it's not happening to me right now."

Mauresmo, who lost 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-1 to the 14th seeded Vaidisova, was dogged by errors, sending down 13 double faults.

Such a hit-and-miss experience has been typical of this year for the former world No. 1, a year which has seen her win just one tournament.

"After this match it's tough to say I made progress," she said. "But the overall grass court season [she was runner-up in Eastbourne to Justine Henin] and here was a little bit better than the clay, that's for sure."

"But considering today's match, it's tough to stay on the positive side," Mauresmo said.

Vaidisova will be playing her first All England Club quarter-final where she will face Serbian sixth seed Ana Ivanovic while Mauresmo plans for the hard court season in the US.

The Frenchwoman was brutal in her assessment of her Centre Court defeat, a match interrupted three times by rain and spread over four hours.

"Everything went wrong, it was a shitty match," Mauresmo said.

Even by Wimbledon standards, there's been a lot of rain this year at the All England Club.

The fickle English weather caused stoppages and postponements on seven of the tournament's eight days.

Last year's runner-up Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling were scheduled to head back on to the court yesterday to complete a third-round match that was supposed to be played last Saturday. The second seed, who had a match point on Monday in the third set, played for a total of 20 minutes in the fifth set Tuesday to get to 4-4.

Also, No. 2 Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams were to resume their fourth-round match after playing only three points on Tuesday, and No. 3 Andy Roddick was to finish his fourth-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu. No. 4 Novak Djokovic was also to finish his suspended third-round match against Nicolas Kiefer.

Serena Williams, who overcame a calf strain to reach the quarter-finals, was scheduled to play top-ranked Justine Henin.

Play on Centre Court and Court No. 1 started at 11am on Tuesday -- two hours earlier than usual -- because of the backlog of matches. Only seven singles matches were completed in between six rain delays.
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