Amélie Simone Mauresmo (born on 5 July 1979) is a French professional tennis player. She is the current women's World No. 1.
Mauresmo first attained the top ranking on 13 September 2004, holding it for five weeks on that occasion. She was the 14th World No. 1 in women's tennis. She is well-known for her powerful one-handed backhand (a rarity in women's tennis). She is also known as one of the few players to reach the top spot without first winning a Grand Slam singles event. Other notable players who did so were Belgian Kim Clijsters, who ascended to the top spot in 2003, two years before winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the 2005 US Open, and Ivan Lendl, who first reached number 1 in 1983, before winning any of his eight Grand Slam singles titles.
Before 2006, Mauresmo was considered the best player on the Women's Tennis Association tour not yet to have claimed a Grand Slam singles title. As a result of her victory in the 2006 Australian Open, there is now no women's singles World No. 1 player, past or present, without a Grand Slam championship.
Amélie Mauresmo was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Inspired by watching Yannick Noah win the 1983 French Open on television, Mauresmo decided to play tennis at the tender age of 4.
In 1996, Mauresmo captured both the Junior French Open and Wimbledon titles; she was named 1996 Junior World Champion by the International Tennis Federation.
In 1999, the then unseeded Mauresmo reached the Australian Open final with wins over three seeds (including world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport), before falling to world No. 2 Martina Hingis, who after the final infamously called Mauresmo, who is a lesbian, "half a man." Though she lost in the final to Hingis, she soundly defeated Hingis later in the year, en route to the final of the Paris [Indoors] event.
Mauresmo was only the second Frenchwoman to reach the Australian Open final dating back to 1922 (Mary Pierce won it in 1995) and third Frenchwoman to reach any Grand Slam final in the Open Era.
It was after her surprise upset of Davenport at the semi-finals of the 1999 Australian Open that Mauresmo came out as a lesbian to the international press.
Mauresmo rapidly climbed into the top ten in WTA rankings, and began to win significant events on the women's tour.
In 2003, she was the leading player in a team that captured the Fed Cup for France. She has won more Fed Cup singles matches than any other French player.
Mauresmo captured a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where she was defeated by Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne in the women's singles final.
On September 13, 2004 she became the first French tennis player to become number one since computer rankings began in the 1970s. She held that ranking for five weeks, and has maintained rankings in the top five ever since.
In 2005 she claimed her first WTA Tour Championships, her most important win to that point of her career. In the final, she rebounded from a first-set loss to defeat countrywoman Mary Pierce (5-7, 7-6, 6-4) (this was a redux of their earlier Round Robin encounter, which Pierce had won in three sets). In round-robin play Mauresmo defeated Elena Dementieva (6-2 and 6-3) and #2 seed Kim Clijsters (6-3, 7-6), suffering her only loss at the hands of Pierce (6-2, 4-6, 2-6). By finishing in second place in the Black Group behind Pierce, she earned a spot in the semifinals where she outclassed the defending champion, Russian Maria Sharapova in straight sets (7-6, 6-3).
At the 2006 Australian Open, Mauresmo finally captured her first Grand Slam singles title by defeating both Belgian former World No. 1 players, Kim Clijsters, and Justine Henin-Hardenne, in the semi-final and final respectively, due to both of her opponents retiring with injury or illness. To Mauresmo's credit she was leading, and controlling the tempo and flow of both matches, before her opponents retired.
Mauresmo then won her next two tournaments, the Paris Indoor (defeating Pierce in the final) and the Proximus Diamond Games, in Antwerp (winning the final against Clijsters).
In the Qatar Total Open, she defeated Martina Hingis in the semi-final by 6-2, 6-2, but lost to Nadia Petrova in the final 3-6, 5-7. Had she won the final, she would not only have captured another title, but also immediately regained the No.1 ranking from Kim Clijsters. Nonetheless, the outcome was sufficient to ensure that Mauresmo would return to the No. 1 ranking on 20 March 2006. This reflected the fact that neither Mauresmo nor Clijsters participated in the 2006 Indian Wells tournament. Thus neither defended her ranking points from the 2005 tournament (which Clijsters won).
As of late March 2006, Mauresmo had won a Tour-leading three tournaments in the season, with wins in 19 of her 22 matches. This includes a 16-match winning streak that began at the Australian Open and ended in the Dubai tournament.
Mauresmo reached the semi-finals of the Nasdaq Open 2006, where she lost to the eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who later defeated Maria Sharapova in the finals in straight sets.
She fell relatively early in the fourth round French Open to Czech teen Nicole Vaidišová. Coming into this year's event ranked No.1, as well as being a reigning Grand Slam champion, Mauresmo was a favourite for the tournament, but was beaten by Vaidisova 67(5) 61 62, in front of a packed Court Philippe Chatrier crowd. Vaidisova later knocked out former world No.1 Venus Williams in three sets in the quarter-finals. Her surprise run at Roland Garros was later cut short by Svetlana Kuznetsova who defeated her in the semi-final.
With this loss, Mauresmo continues to struggle at her nation's major. She has never made it beyond the quarters at Roland Garros in 12 career appearances, having done so at least once at every other Grand Slam. Additionally, she has reached that round only twice, falling in straight sets both times. But she still finds positives in this year's run.
She was first seeded going into The Championships, Wimbledon, despite a first-round loss at the warm-up Eastbourne event. She defeated Maria Sharapova to advance to the finals.
It was after her surprise upset of Davenport at the semi-finals of the 1999 Australian Open that Mauresmo came out as a lesbian to the international press. "You can say she is my girlfriend. You can write about her. There were a few moments when I said, "Maybe I should have stayed private" she said. Then she remembered her life of a year before, when she was involved in a relationship with another player and would grope for palatable lies whenever the subject of boyfriends was broached by an interviewer. "I wasn't myself. I don't want to hide Sylvie. I love her."
Mauresmo met Sylvie Bourdon, 11years her senior, at a party on 5 November 1998 in Saint-Tropez, where Bourdon's family owns a popular nightspot called "Le Gorille". Bourdon said she met Mauresmo 1998 through a mutual friend, former French player Isabelle Demongeot. After initially living in St Tropez, the couple presently live in Geneva, Switzerland
Unlike Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova in an earlier era, Mauresmo experienced neither public fallout nor loss of any lucrative commercial endorsements from her sponsors. She has since spoken of the trauma she experienced from controversy in the press over her sexuality and powerful athleticism, and the comments of other players. However, she received tremendous support from the French public. Sports companies such as Nike and Dunlop continued to sponsor and use her in many of their commercials.
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