ITALY'S PHENOM CROWNED CHAMP

The point before she won the most improbable of French Open championships, Francesca Schiavone of Italy volleyed a perfect backhand into the empty space across the net. Schiavone, the 17th seed, galloped across her end of the court, caught in the moment before the moment. She took a breath and wiped the excitement off her face with a towel from the ball boy. The stoic and strong Australian across the court, Samantha Stosur, had overpowered three former world No. 1s on the way to the final. But she had no response for the spry, extroverted Schiavone. Stosur shanked the match’s final shot off the frame of her racket. The ball flew toward the sky. Schiavone dropped to the ground. She landed on her back, rolled over and kissed the red court. Schiavone became the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles event, outsmarting and outhustling No. 7 Stosur on a hot and dry afternoon at Court Philippe Chatrier, 6-4, 7-6 (2). Schiavone, her nose smudged with the red crushed-brick powder that tops the courts at Roland Garros, clambered into the stands. She immersed herself into a section of Italian family and friends, some of whom drove to Paris overnight, wearing black T-shirts that read “Nothing is Impossible.” “This means that everybody has a chance,” Schiavone said as the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup sat next to her. “To be who you really want to be, and to do everything in your life. This is what’s happened to me.” Schiavone, who turns 30 on June 23, became the oldest first-time Grand Slam champion since 30-year-old Ann Jones of Britain won Wimbledon in 1969. She will make her debut in the top 10 when the rankings are released on Monday. “I have to say congratulations to Sam, because she is a great, great person and a great athlete,” Schiavone told the crowd during the award ceremony, and Stosur, 26, smiled through the tears of a missed opportunity. “You deserve to be here next time. You’re young. You can do it.” Stosur had beaten Schiavone four of the previous five times they played, including in the first round of the 2009 French Open. Back then, Stosur was seeded 30th and Schiavone was not seeded at all. Each arrived at Roland Garros with two career victories and late-blooming games, but they barnstormed the bracket in much different ways. Stosur used her powerful right arm, unleashing serves and precise, spinning forehands to overwhelm the four-time French Open champion Justine Henin, the current No. 1 Serena Williams, and No. 4 Jelena Jankovic. But the booming shots that Stosur sent skittering past previous opponents often were flipped back across the net by the quick-moving Schiavone. Unlike Stosur’s previous opponents, Schiavone wanted no part of a baseline war. She seized every chance to rush to the net, winning 14 of 15 points when she got there. “It was so clear for me what to do,” Schiavone said. “When I tried to play short, the ball after was long. When she was running to the backhand, the second ball was shot to the other side.” Schiavone took control of the match-winning tie breaker when, at 2-2, she returned Stosur’s serve with a wickedly spun backhand drop shot. Stosur got to it and flipped it back, but Schiavone charged and punched it back for an easy point. She kept Stosur buried in a back corner again on the next point, then rushed the net and knocked the ball into the opposite, empty corner. The crowd cheered mostly for the underdog — a sentiment interrupted occasionally by the familiar “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” chant from the smattering of Stosur fans — and sensed that one of the tournament’s biggest upsets was at hand. Schiavone’s career rode a long plateau before taking slow rise over the past year. She made the French Open quarterfinals in 2001, but left most Grand Slam events in the first week. She said she always dreamed of winning the French Open more than anything else. “Maybe it was far away in the reality,” she said, moving her hand to her heart, “but, here, never far away.” Stosur, by contrast, seems like a player with staying power. It was about three years ago, after Stosur had spent 61 consecutive weeks ranked No. 1 in doubles and was in the 20s in singles, that she contracted Lyme disease. Her energy sapped, she missed about 10 months in 2007 and 2008. At the time, she had won 22 doubles titles, including the United States Open in 2005 and the French Open in 2006, and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. But she had no singles titles. “I got this label of a doubles specialist and a doubles player because I had good success,” Stosur said the day before the final. “But that whole time, my goal was to do those kinds of things in singles.” With a heightened sense of her career mortality, Stosur focused on singles. Her breakthrough came last year at the French Open, when she winded her way to the semifinals. Stosur had found an unexpected niche on clay. She was 39-37 on the surface before her illness, but 28-8 after it before Saturday’s match. She was a tour-best 20-2 on clay this spring, showing a rare ability to power past opponents on what is considered a slower surface that requires more nuance. After beating Jankovic in 60 minutes in the semifinals, Stosur’s parents and two brothers flew in from Australia to watch the final in person. Stosur acknowledged that she was the favorite, given the names she had beaten and the opponent remaining. Schiavone, however, proved a steady foil to Stosur’s serious, ball-bashing ways “It’s just been a big journey and a great two weeks,” Stosur said. “I guess you wanted the full fairy tale, but it didn’t quite happen.” No, the happily ever after ending belonged to Schiavone. After beating No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals and No. 5 Elena Dementieva in the semifinals, Schiavone kissed the crushed-brick court. Asked on the day before the final what she would do if she won the final, she smiled and scooped her hands together. “I take all the clay like this,” she said, “and I bring home.” In the end, she did not need her hands to take home the clay. She wore much of it on her back, and a little smudge on her nose, just above her smile. (NY Times)