August 8, 2004 Mauresmo Captures Third Title of Year in Montreal MONTREAL - For the second time in three years, Amelie Mauresmo will exit Canada with the Rogers Cup in hand. The Frenchwoman capped off an impressive week in Montreal on Sunday with a 61 60 victory against Russia's Elena Likhovtseva in a mere 51 minutes. Mauresmo's efforts will not only be rewarded with a title, but on Monday, the Frenchwoman is projected to move to a career-best No.2 in the WTA Rankings. "It's a great achievement but I want to get to that final spot, that number 1 rank," Mauresmo said. "That's my goal for two years, two and a half years now. I said I want to achieve that. It just shows that I'm on the right track, that all the efforts that I put into that goal are worth it and it pays off and it's going to come very soon, I hope." After both players held serve through the first three games, Mauresmo took control of the remainder of the match - not dropping another game the rest of the way. "I think both the beginning of the first set and the beginning of the second set were two key points, key moments, because she was tired from last night's match," Mauresmo said. "So, I had to make sure that right from the beginning I had to show her it's going to be a tough match and that I'm going to play great tennis and that if she wants to beat me she's going to have to play really high level tennis. "So, I guess that makes it really difficult when you're already a little bit tired, when you don't have that much experience of big events like this. Again, I played some great tennis. I knew exactly what I had to do tactically again to beat her. So, yeah, it probably made it very tough for her." Mauresmo didn't have the easiest week in Montreal - battling through three three-set matches - but still managed to escape with her third title of the year and 13th of her career. From the start, Mauresmo was challenged in every match leading into the final. She needed three sets to defeat Tamarine Tanasugarn in the second round and another three to steer clear of No.14 seed Elena Bovina in the third round. An additional three sets were required to defeat No.14 seed Karolina Sprem, bringing her to nine sets of tennis and more than five hours on court just to reach the semifinals. Then, after a 1 hour, 22 minute battle with No.10 seed Vera Zvonareva, Mauresmo finally made it through to the final. But Mauresmo's 6 hours, 45 minutes on court prior to the final was minimal compared to that of Likhovtseva, who had played for 8 hours, 20 minutes - enduring 120 games and 13 sets of tennis to reach the championship match. The triumph in Montreal brought Mauresmo's Tier I title total for the year to three - adding a hard court title to the Berlin and Rome clay court crowns earned earlier in the season. Mauresmo improved to 5-5 in Tier I finals, winning 2001 Berlin, 2002 Montreal, 2004 Berlin, 2004 Rome and 2004 Montreal, while losing 1998 Berlin, 2000, 2001 and 2003 Rome, along with Moscow in 2003. The Frenchwoman also improved to 41-7 on the year and 13-3 at the Rogers Cup. She has now won the last two times the rotating event has been played at Montreal. "Every time I come here it feels like nothing can happen to me, even though some day I'm going to have to lose here probably," Mauresmo said. Likhovtseva, who was playing in her first Tier I final, was looking for her first title of the season and fourth of her career. Despite her loss, the Russian had a brillant week of play in Montreal, defeating four seeded players just to reach the final. "I wish it could have been a better performance today," Likhovtseva said. "I don't want to complain. It was tough really coming from playing three sets of a night match and then coming out today. It just was a very exhausting week. Certainly I ran out of gas today." Likhovtseva began her week with a come-from-behind victory against Maria Vento-Kabchi. In the second round to emerged from a 2 hour, 18 minute marathon to defeat countrywoman and No.8 seed Nadia Petrova. She managed to defeat No.11 seed Francesca Schiavone in the third round and followed by stunning No.5 seed and former champion Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Likhovtseva battled for another two hours to capture another shocking victory - this time defeating No.3 seed Anastasia Myskina. "I feel very pleased with myself and with my performance," Likhovtseva said. "I don't want to take this match, I don't want to think about this match, let's say that. But beating four great players, I feel really good and I think this is what I have to work on, my game, my mental preparation and just go on from there." In doubles, the No.5 seeded Japanese team of Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama won their first title as a team by defeating No.4 seeds Liezel Huber and Tamarine Tanasugaran, 60 63. The title is the fourth for Asagoe, who also won a title earlier in this year in Hobart (w/Okamoto). It is the 29th for Sugiyama, a former world No.1 in doubles, but the first doubles titles for the Japanese No.1 in 2004. Sugiyama won eight doubles titles in 2003, including Grand Slam victories with Kim Clijsters at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. In preparation for the Olympic Games in Athens, Asagoe and Sugiyama have played together over the last three weeks, first in Los Angeles and also in San Diego. This was just the fifth time that Asagoe and Sugiyama have played together and the first tournament they've won a match together since the Japan Open in 1997. They had lost five straight matches prior to this week. Huber and Tanasugarn reached the final together in their first tournament as a pairing. --

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