Mauresmo beats Henin-Hardenne

WIMBLEDON, England -- Amelie Mauresmo sank into her chair after losing the first set of the Wimbledon final and buried her face in a towel.

Then Mauresmo straightened up and gave herself a little talking-to, deciding that this was the moment to cast off the burden of being known as a player who couldn't come through when it counted.

Holding her serve and her nerve down the stretch, Mauresmo came back to beat Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to win Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title -- and first that she got to celebrate properly.

"I don't want anyone," Mauresmo said, "to talk about my nerves anymore."

This was a rematch of the Australian Open final in January, when Henin-Hardenne quit in the second set with stomach problems, denying Mauresmo a chance to feel what it's like to earn a championship and leading to some ill feelings between the women.

"The way it ended is different," the top-ranked Mauresmo said. "Now I had this final moment, especially this final point."

She couldn't stop smiling as she clutched the champion's plate, as she climbed through the stands to hug her coach and supporters, as she addressed the audience, as she posed for photos, as she walked off the court with a wave.

When she first spent time at No. 1 in the rankings in 2004, she was only the second woman to do so without having won a major. Mauresmo reached the 1999 Australian Open final, then didn't get that far at a Slam event until the same place this year.

In January, Mauresmo's Australian semifinal ended when her opponent stopped because of an injury, and then came the anticlimactic final, so the issue of her fragile mental state lingered. But she got through three-set tests against major champions in the quarterfinals (Anastasia Myskina) and semifinals (Maria Sharapova) at Wimbledon, before denying Henin-Hardenne's bid to complete a career Grand Slam.

"Now that I see all the names on the trophy, and my name is on there -- Wow! That's not so bad," Mauresmo said. "I was thinking about the trophy all morning, and then I got my hands on it. It was bizarre."

She triumphed despite having fewer winners (31-28) and more unforced errors (22-20) than Henin-Hardenne, who won last month's French Open for her fifth major title.

"Two Grand Slams in a month -- it's pretty hard," Henin-Hardenne said.

She botched one serve so badly it bounced before reaching the net.

"I wasn't playing my best tennis, far from that," the third-ranked Henin-Hardenne said. "That's the kind of day that happens."