Amelie Mauresmo reached the third round at Indian Wells she defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open. She earlier won her first victories after two years by winning Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva at the Paris Indoors.
“Obviously it was, for me, a big relief to be able to hold a trophy again,” Mauresmo said of her win.
Seeded at 17, Mauresmo admitted that her Paris Indoor win gave her a boost of confidence, but it was apparently not enough when she faced Groenefeld on Friday due to her injuries. The match with Groenefeld was her first since her victories at the Paris Indoors, and Mauresmo opened with a shaky start, trailing 1-3 in the third set before capturing the next four games. She finally sealed the win after three hours.
“I doubted my play, mostly physically, because I was really feeling either injured or not being able to really move the way I wanted,” the Frenchwoman said.
She missed four months of the season in 2007 due to an emergency appendectomy and a strained right abductor muscle. 2008 was also plagued by more injuries, particularly to her thighs and rib cage.