Champion Mauresmo crumbles

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo and Nicole Vaidisova both looked as flakey as they come.

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It's all over: Mauresmo

The taste was exquisite, however, and by virtue of rain delays and good old human frailty, a lot longer lasting than a couple of bites. That Mauresmo self-destructed at the death in the most spectacular way imaginable should not detract from an exhilarating performance by her 18-year-old opponent with the Maria Sharapova sound and look.

This was one of those occasions when not only Mauresmo lost it, but Vaidisova won it. The Czech Republic teenager secured a famous 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 victory with a consistently aggressive and attacking approach that first broke the defending champion's spirit, then her game.

Vaidisova's forehand, of which more later, is a thing of beauty and a weapon of destruction. It will win her more and bigger titles than the six she has accumulated around the world in the infancy of her career. The No 14 seed is a star now and a bigger star of the future.

But she was assisted in her progress by an extraordinary capitulation, even by the standards of shaky Mauresmo. Winning here 12 months ago and spending most of last year as world No 1 has not exactly made a sizeable deposit in her bottle bank.

The end was painful, as much for those watching as for the champion herself. Trailing 1-4 in the deciding set, Mauresmo served back-to-back double faults — two out of an ugly tally of 14 — followed by the craziest attempted drop shot from behind the baseline. That option would have been rejected in a public park on a Sunday afternoon. The ball barely reached the net.

Even in such irresistible form, Vaidisova presents a vulnerable air on court. She looks constantly to her corner for encouragement and is still given to the occasional minor tantrum despite recent improvement in this department.

At one stage yesterday she dropped to her knees and took her racket to the net as if she were beating a carpet as well as the champion.

Against such a backdrop, with the 18-year-old serving for the match and the rain closing in, Mauresmo needed to put the ball in play. There followed a catalogue of crass errors starting with the netting of the easiest volley.

That prompted the Frenchwoman to smack a ball high into the disabled section at the top level of the stand. It was to prove just about the only ball she did not hit out of court in the game and earned her a code violation and a warning from the umpire.

Somebody should have shown him a yellow card. Such was his confusion about who should serve and from what end at the start of the second set that he was picked up on the television microphone receiving advice from a ball boy.

It had taken two hours 20 minutes spread over three rain breaks and almost four hours for Mauresmo to lose her title. By the end, however, it was almost as if she wanted the sorry affair to end.

"Everything went wrong today," was Mauresmo's take. "The serve was definitely not working well. Confidence was a factor. I'm struggling to get the confidence back. That's probably an explanation. It's definitely a struggle for me right now."

Nicole Vaidisova (left), the 14th seed, celebrates her surprise victory over Wimbledon

Mauresmo missed the best part of two months this year, having had her appendix removed in March. Easy wins in the first week against lowly opponents had masked her lack of sharpness and, more significantly, her lack of self-belief.

As the defence of her title ended, she said: "That was a s****y match, a really s****y third set."

Vaidisova understandably took a different view of what was probably the best win of her career. Reaching the semi-final of the French Open on her favourite clay last year represented a breakthrough but defeating Mauresmo on alien grass amounts to the more significant achievement.

She managed 22 winners from the baseline against Mauresmo's paltry three, most of them with potentially the best forehand in the women's game.

It was as much her attitude as the shot execution which proved decisive. While Mauresmo generally poked her returns of serve over the net, Vaidisova positively thumped her replies while finding lines and corners.

Vaidisova spent the first six years of her life in Germany where Steffi Graf reigned. "She was a huge role model there and she is probably my role model," she said.

Graf, of course, won seven singles titles here. More performances like yesterday and Vaidisova can start contemplating getting her own name on the trophy.