Rejuvenated Majoli back from ignominy

She once admitted she loved to party and, after a traumatic five year battle with her demons, Iva Majoli has the perfect excuse to enjoy life again.

The Croat, who in 1997 became the lowest seeded player in Open history to win the French Open, on Sunday claimed her first Tour title since that triumph at Roland Garros.

Majoli's 7-6, 6-4 victory over Patty Schnyder at the Family Circle Cup drew a line under a ghastly spell that, while pock-marked with injuries, had threatened the 24-year-old's career.

Now, rather than dreading a return to the clay of Paris -- and constant reminders of her success in a seemingly previous life -- the former world number four can embrace next month's French Open with a little joie de vivre.

"I don't think I can even explain how it feels," she told reporters after ending Schnyder's own mini-comeback from ignominy. "It's been so long since I won a tournament."

Majoli's whole career seems to have followed its own particular, and peculiar, gestation period.

She was hailed as a new Monica Seles when she joined Nick Bolletieri's tennis academy in Florida at the age of 12, and was voted the WTA Tour's most promising player in 1993.

But Majoli's long-predicted grand slam success failed to materialise for another four years.

Then, as the 19-year-old conqueror of Martina Hingis in the 1997 Roland Garros final, she gave an insight as to why.

HEDONISTIC

"I'm going to party," she said after collecting the Suzanne Lenglen trophy. "I like to party, I like to have fun, which perhaps is why when people expected me to win a grand slam at 16 or 17, I really didn't feel ready for that."

Her breakthrough was supposed to usher in maturity and preface a sustained period of success.

However, Majoli's fall from grace was not just because of her wavering dedication.

Post-Paris, a back injury, a bout of bronchitis and foot and ankle problems all softened her focus, and then a shoulder injury -- which required surgery in 1999 -- hit her hard.

She played only one grand slam tournament in both 1999 and 2000, while first round exits when she was fit were the norm.

Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, 1999 will be seen as her nadir -- forcing her to make a conscious decision as to whether to persevere as she tumbled down the rankings.

Hope came in the form of finals in 2000 and 2001 at Kuala Lumpur and Quebec City respectively, and then a narrow third round exit to Hingis at last year's U.S. Open.

It hardly registered on the game's Richter scale, but at least Majoli was heading in the right direction -- mentally more than anything.

COMMITTED AGAIN

"I'm very committed again and I want to get back," she said at Flushing Meadow.

"I feel my place is in the top 10...I'm going do everything in my power to be there again and get in better shape and keep working hard.

"You know, everyone said 'Goran won the Wimbledon title'. I said, 'Well, it's my turn again -- I was the first one in Croatia'. So I have to prove it."

Her friend, Jennifer Capriati, has shown how to move from darkness to light when it comes to rebuilding a career, and Majoli also clearly takes inspiration from compatriot Ivanisevic, who triumphed on the grass of SW19 last July.

Ivanisevic, however, remains a "one-slam wonder", a tag Majoli herself does not appreciate.

"Forget that -- I'm tired of everyone saying, '97 French Open'," Majoli said. "I want to win another."

On second thoughts, those parties better wait.