Amélie Mauresmo (born 5 July 1979) is a French professional tennis player. She is well-known for her powerful one-handed backhand (a rarity in women's tennis).

Biography

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 age of 4.

In 1996, she 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 No. 2 Martina Hingis; she 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. She lost in the final to Hingis but later in the year, soundly defeated her en route to the final of the Paris [Indoors] event.

It was after her surprise upset of Davenport at the semi-finals of the Australian Open that Mauresmo came out as a lesbian to the international press. Unlike the comings-out of players like Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, Mauresmo experienced neither public fallout nor loss of any lucrative commercial endorsements from her sponsors; she received tremendous support from the French public, and sports companies Nike and Dunlop continue to sponsor and use her in many of their commercials.

In 2003, Mauresmo 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 is one of the few players to reach the top spot without first winning a Grand Slam event; other notable players who did so were Belgian Kim Clijsters and Ivan Lendl, who first reached number 1 in 1983, before winning any of his eight Grand Slam titles.

Titles (17)

Singles (16)

Mentionable Runner-up Performances

• 1999 - Australian Open
• 2003 - WTA Tour Championships
• 2004 - Summer Olympics

Doubles (1)

• 2000 - Linz (with Rubin).

Other

• French Fed Cup Team 1998-99, 2001-04.
• French Olympic Team 2000, 2004

External links

• Amélie Mauresmo's Official site (in French)
• Women's Tennis Association - Amélie Mauresmo's Profile (in English)
• Fed Cup - Amélie Mauresmo's Profile (in English)
• Amélie Mauresmo - The Fanpage (in English)