WIMBLEDON 2006: Women's Final Prediction

My semifinal predictions were correct one out of two. I picked Henin in 3 and Sharapova in 3. I'm very happy that I was wrong about that. Here is my preview and prediction of the 2006 Wimbledon Ladies Final:

Amélie Mauresmo FRA (1) vs. Justine Henin-Hardenne BEL (3). Mauresmo is in her first Wimbledon final and only 3rd Grand Slam final of her career to date. However, Henin-Hardenne is in her 3rd Grand Slam final of the year and has not lost a set winning in Paris in May and hasn't dropped a set in London. Henin-Hardenne has been in 7 finals and won 5 of them (4 of them against Kim Clijsters!) Head-to-head Henin-Hardenne leads 5-4 but the two have never played on grass. They actually have exchanged victories (they haven't lost consecutive matches to each other), and their last meeting was a beatdown by Henin-Hardenne on clay so I think that it is Mauresmo's turn to win. Lucky for her this may occur on the world's most prestigious tennis court, Wimbledon's Centre Court.

Of course, one of the very interesting storylines on Saturday will be the fact that this match is a repeat of the 2006 Australian Open. There, Mauresmo outlasted Clijsters (who retired in the third set) in the semifinals and Henin-Hardenne won a very close match against Sharapova which may have gone the other way if electronic line calling technology were in use. Then in the final, Mauresmo was leading 6-1, 2-0 when Henin-Hardenne inexplicably retired, defaulting the title to the Frenchwoman. Henin-Hardenne's toughness both mental and physical are near legendary (she required intravenous fluids after winning a three set late night thriller at the 2003 US Open over Jennifer Capriati but then came back hours later and defeated Clijsters in straight sets.

In the first set against Sharapova, Mauresmo had one unforced error, a double fault. She rather easily won that set 6-3. She was up 3-1 in the second set before "the yips" set in and she allowed Sharapova to lead 4-3 and eventually win the set 6-3. In the third set Mauresmo rushed off to a 4-0 lead and although she was broken she was always able to break back to win the set and match 6-2. If she plays similarly against Henin-Hardenne on Saturday Amélie Mauresmo will win her first Wimbledon title, becoming the first openly lesbian Wimbledon champ since Martina Navratilova in 1990 (unless Jana Novotna in 1998 counts!)
WHO I THINK WILL WIN: Mauresmo (in 3 sets).
WHO I WANT TO WIN: Mauresmo.