Tatiana Golovin - Getty Images

Golovin Leads Strong French Charge at Rogers Cup

August 16, 2007 - Although former World No.1 Amelie Mauresmo is not in Toronto this week, France is still a prominent force at the 2007 Rogers Cup presented by American Express.

With three Frenchwomen advancing to the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Tier I event, echoes of ‘allez’ can be heard throughout the Rexall Centre grounds.

Leading the way for the ‘bleu, blanc, rouge’ is twelfth-seeded and World No. 19 Tatiana Golovin. The 19-year old who now makes her home in Miami, Florida, has advanced to her third Tier I quarter-final of the season in Toronto after avenging a heart-breaking Fed Cup loss to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone with a resounding 6-2, 6-0 victory on centre court Thursday.

“I had played her in the past, and she did give me some trouble before,” Golovin analyzed after her match. “I definitely I had a strategy going in, and I was very aggressive.”

After spending the first part of 2007 without a coach, Golovin is working with tennis great Mats Wilander for the first time this week and is enjoying the experience. “It's been awesome, we've really been enjoying it so far,” Golovin raved. “He's been telling me stories about the way he's been playing, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Golovin may be known for her bold on-court fashion statements, she’s wearing her famous red knickers again this week after turning heads at Wimbledon, but it is her first-class game that really has people talking. She took home her first career Tour singles title at Charleston in April and her 2006 campaign can be summed up by a first Grand Slam quarter-final appearance, a final berth at Stuttgart as well as four wins over Top 10 players. Named the Tour’s ‘Newcomer of the Year’ in 2004 after capturing the mixed doubles crown at the French Open alongside fellow countryman Richard Gasquet, Golovin continues to pave her way to the top of her sport.  

Joining Golovin in the quarter-finals, will be Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli who outlasted Russian Dinara Safina 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-0 to put forth her best Rogers Cup performance to date. Bartoli shocked the tennis world when she came within one match of winning the sport’s most prestigious event, thus attaining a career-high ranking of No. 11. En route to the final, she knocked off the likes of Shahar Peer, Jelena Jankovic and World No. 1 Justine Henin.  

Rounding out the French contingent still for the coveted Rogers Cup presented by American Express trophy is Virginie Razzano, who has been a thorn in the side of the tournament’s top seeds. So far this week, she has defeated fifth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, Israel’s Shahar Peer, seeded eleventh, and fellow French upstart Aravane Rezai in the opening round.   

The French tennis federation is known the world over for its ability to develop elite players in bunches. While the French women are making their mark, the ATP Tour is equally being inundated with some French flavour thanks to rising stars Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Gael Monfils. Even Tennis Canada has added some expertise from France in the form Louis Borfiga, who was hired in May 2006 to assume the role of vice-president, high performance athlete development. Since 1990, Borfiga has been the director of national coaches at INSEP, a national training centre for some of the top junior players in the world located in France and has also served as the coordinator of French junior tennis programs.

Tennis fans heading to the Rexall Centre in the coming days are sure to get a glimpse of a tennis powerhouse that has transcended the women’s game in the past few years. 

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