Let’s go back to the year 2006, when Amélie Mauresmo was the greatest woman tennis player on earth. She won the Australian Open and Wimbledon. She was No.1 almost throughout the whole season. She deserved this rank: she almost beat every top player in every possible way.

This winning streak continued until the beginning of 2007. Mauresmo won Antwerp for the third straight year, claiming the Diamant racket. She seemed like she was never happier. What her smiling face did not know then was that it was all about to come to an end. Soon after Antwerp, she got acute appendicitis and was never able to fully recover her world-class form.

She struggled and struggled. Her tournaments following her operation were: Berlin Open, where she lost to Julia Vakulenko (ranked 53), Rome, where she lost to Samantha Stosur (ranked 29), and Roland Garros, where lost to Lucie Safarova (ranked 29). In the following six tournaments, until the end of the season, Mauresmo managed to make it to the quarter-finals only once.

Would 2008 herald a new start for Amélie? Hardly with the results so far - four quarter-finals and two semis in 15 tournaments, including defeats  by Tamarina Tanasugarn (ranked 101) in Doha, Zheng (ranked 174) in Miami, Suarez Navarro (ranked 132) at Roland Garros, Stosur (ranked 157) at Eastbourne and Nathalie Dechy (ranked 92) in Cincinnati.

Worst of all, Amélie was getting into a position where she had one or more match points, but she couldn't keep her nerve and went on to lose.

Evidence? This week she was playing in Tokyo. Her first-round match against Dominika Cibulkova ended once again in a nightmare. She failed to convert three match points. It got really tight in the third set tie-break. Down 8-9, Amélie got an easy smash, just to hit back in the court. What an opportunity to get even again and turn the match her way. The result? OUT! Game, set and match to Cibulkova.