Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
Severine Bremond did not take the standard route to the women's tennis tour.
In an age when the game's top ranks are populated by polished products of tennis academies, the 27-year-old Frenchwoman's story is refreshingly different.
The contrast also shows in her game. While pounding groundstrokes define the modern player, Bremond's all-court play and one-handed backhand is a throwback to another era.
It came to the attention of a worldwide TV audience in June, when she reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals, one of only five female qualifiers in the tournament's history to achieve the feat (Alexander Stevenson continued on to the semifinal in 1999). She held her own against Justine Henin-Hardenne on the grandstand Court 1, losing in two close sets.
""I took it match by match,"" she said in Bali, where she is seeded 8th in the Wismilak International. ""And then I got through the match against Patty (Schnyder, world ranked 8) and that was already special, but it went on and on.
""I thought I was dreaming, and I was going to wake up and it would end.""
It was an almighty stride in her career; only a couple of weeks earlier, she was the runner up in the US$50,000 challenger in Marseille. Her ranking surged from 129 to the mid-60s; she also earned her biggest ever paycheck of 76,000 (US$140,600).
""For sure, I would like to do well at Roland Garros, it is special to French players, but Wimbledon is also very nice too, with the history and the grass.""
Born Severine Beltrame, she began playing tennis at the age of 10 with her mother in the southern coastal city of Montpellier. She was, she says, ""crazy"" about the game, but her parents stressed she should get an education first. She did not play the junior circuit, only competing in local club competitions and practicing for a couple of hours after school.
At 18, she was accepted into law school in her hometown, but continued to play the small tournaments in her area. After a year, she decided she would focus on tennis. At 22, tired of her ranking hovering around the 300 mark, she teamed up with coach Eric Bremond.
Their partnership has been successful on a professional and personal level; they celebrated their one-year anniversary Sunday.
""I think it's just positive for me, traveling together all the time, we don't miss anything,"" she said. ""Our passion is tennis, and we speak about it almost every day, but we love that, we live almost for that...""
Her results have been inconsistent since Wimbledon, but she reached the quarterfinal at the small Forest Hills tournament before the U.S. Open in August.
""I expected that it would happen one day, I was waiting for it to happen,"" she said of her hard-fought, long-awaited success. ""I just want it to go on, and improve.
