W&S field bolstered by former No. 1

The Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open soon will make a name for itself in the sports world when it goes from a lower-tier tennis tournament to a showcase of the game's top players. This week, tournament officials just hope the name recognition of Amelie Mauresmo will help bridge the gap.

And Mauresmo is just hoping to start restoring her good name on the court.

The tournament, hurt by players opting to play in the Olympics, is relying on the former No. 1 player to lure the fans to the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

The plan is for the W&S Women's Open to be a prestigious Tier I event next year, according to tournament director Bruce Flory. Then by 2011 it's being targeted to be part of a combined women's and men's event, thanks to the recent purchase of the men's tournament by the United States Tennis Association.

Until then, current ownership must obtain a Tier I event through lease or purchase.

"Somehow the USTA and ourselves are all kind of negotiating how to get a women's tournament here," Flory said. "Hopefully in the next few weeks that will happen. We're looking for the USTA's help obviously in getting that done."

In the meantime, the women's tournament has been drawing just over 30,000 fans a year, more than 100,000 less than the men's event gets. Mauresmo is the kind of draw that could boost that figure. If the 2006 version of Mauresmo, that is, shows up.

The Frenchwoman won two Grand Slam titles in 2006, when she was ranked No. 1 nearly all year. Her rank, however, slowly slipped to No. 10 by September 2007, and in less than a year since, it has fallen to 36.

A string of injuries this year and, by her own admission, age, have taken their toll.

"The ranking is just the result of not being able to play at my best level, not being able to be fit, not being able to be healthy," Mauresmo said. "And that's quite frustrating.

"I'm not really concerned about the ranking. What concerns me is my health and not being able to play two or three tournaments in a row just being perfectly healthy.

"Age is not helping. Twenty-nine is young in normal life but in tennis life ... since I've been playing for more than 20 years it starts getting (hard) on the body a little bit."

Mauresmo has been hampered by injuries in her past three tournaments, with Wimbledon at the start of July being her last competition. A rib injury in the French Open essentially ousted her in the Round of 64, then she had to retire at Eastbourne because of a thigh tear, then the thigh acted up again at Wimbledon, when she played Serena Williams to a tiebreak loss in the first set before succumbing to the injury and losing the second set 6-1.

This season Mauresmo has lost to players ranked at the time Nos. 78, 101, 174, 132 and 157. She hasn't made the semifinals in 11 tournaments, and her last title came in February 2007.

She said she's finally healthy, however, and is looking at the W&S as a chance to tune up for the U.S. Open. She wanted to play in Mason so much that when an opening on the French Olympic tennis team arose recently, she turned it down.

"And considering the fact (the French Federation) did not have much consideration for me (during the team's initial selection) ..." Mauresmo said.