We're all aware by now of what happened at Roland Garros but here is a brief summary. Well, the tournament did not begin well as Martina & Arantxa, as expected, crashed out of the womens doubles in the first round, beaten 6-4 3-6 6-3 by Lourdes Dominguez Lino & Nuri Llagostera Vives. Martina's attention then turned to the mixed doubles with Leander where they were seeded sixth. They won their opening match defeating Nicolas Devilder & Stephanie Foretz 6-4 6-3. In the second round, they defeated Simon Aspelin & Dinara Safina 6-4 6-0 in a shockingly easy match. On to the quarterfinals where they faced a tough test against Jared Palmer & Corina Morariu. Our team was down a break in the third before they recovered to score a 7-6 4-6 6-3 victory. And before it could sink in that Martina was in her first Roland Garros semifinal since 1988, they reached the finals with a 6-2 6-3 demolition of Paul Hanley & Samantha Stosur.
Unfortunately, disaster struck in the final against Fabrice Santoro & Daniela Hantuchova, during Leander's opening service game. He fell on his right shoulder, diving for a return and the injury was serious enough that it will now take him three to five weeks to recover fully which will force him to miss Wimbledon. Despite the injury, our team took the first set and were up a break at 2-0 in the third with a point for 3-0 when it all began to unravel; they proceeded to lose six games in a row and with that died Martina's hopes of a third mixed doubles title at Roland Garros, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
There was not much media coverage of Martina over the fortnight despite making the mixed doubles finals. She was pointedly ignored on the tournament website with not even a photo from the courts. The Roland Garros website is notorious anyway for being the worst of the four Grand Slam websites so that should not come as a surprise. For a few photos, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three, Photo Four. You will also find photos on the websites of Getty Images and Wire Images - do a search for "Navratilova" in the search box on the left. For two video clips, click on the following links: France 2 & Eurosport (interview with Matthias Stach & Barbara Schett). Martina & Arantxa held a press conference after their first round loss but unfortunately, the transcripts are not available online. Quotes from that press conference were included in this nice article from The Daily Telegraph and a short blurb from the Associated Press (scroll to the middle of the page). They don't seem to have had a press conference after the mixed doubles final but for articles of interest click on the following links: The Indian Express, United News of India, rediff.com.
Unfortunately, disaster struck in the final against Fabrice Santoro & Daniela Hantuchova, during Leander's opening service game. He fell on his right shoulder, diving for a return and the injury was serious enough that it will now take him three to five weeks to recover fully which will force him to miss Wimbledon. Despite the injury, our team took the first set and were up a break at 2-0 in the third with a point for 3-0 when it all began to unravel; they proceeded to lose six games in a row and with that died Martina's hopes of a third mixed doubles title at Roland Garros, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
There was not much media coverage of Martina over the fortnight despite making the mixed doubles finals. She was pointedly ignored on the tournament website with not even a photo from the courts. The Roland Garros website is notorious anyway for being the worst of the four Grand Slam websites so that should not come as a surprise. For a few photos, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three, Photo Four. You will also find photos on the websites of Getty Images and Wire Images - do a search for "Navratilova" in the search box on the left. For two video clips, click on the following links: France 2 & Eurosport (interview with Matthias Stach & Barbara Schett). Martina & Arantxa held a press conference after their first round loss but unfortunately, the transcripts are not available online. Quotes from that press conference were included in this nice article from The Daily Telegraph and a short blurb from the Associated Press (scroll to the middle of the page). They don't seem to have had a press conference after the mixed doubles final but for articles of interest click on the following links: The Indian Express, United News of India, rediff.com.
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