Biography

Amelie Mauresmo is a right handed professional French tennis player that has been making the waves since the day she made her debut in 1995. The lady who is famous for her backhand, has also won two Grand Slams titles, Australian Open and at Wimbledon in 2006. Mauresmo also enjoyed a stay on top of the rankings for almost five consecutive weeks in 2004, making her the fourteenth female tennis player to reach number one spot since computerized rankings came into being.

Born on 5 July, 1979 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Amelie was fascinated by the tennis world since early childhood. In fact, upon seeing Yannick Noah win the 1983 French Open on television, Mauresmo began to play tennis at the age of 4.

 As a junior she succeeded in winning the titles of both junior French Open and Wimbledon in 1996 and got christened with the tag of 1996 Junior World Champion by the International Tennis Federation.

Tennis Career

She fought her way to 1999 Australian Open finals including a win over the then number one Lindsay Davenport before finally kneeling down to Martina Hingis in the finals. She became the second only French women to reach the finals in the Australian finals. The star soon took her revenge upon beating Hingis in the Paris indoor event. It was during this time when, Mauresmo barely 19, announced to the whole world about her being lesbian.

2003 saw her reaching the finals of most of the tournaments she participated in defeating some of the best known names in the women tennis world. Some of the notable ones were, Venus Williams in the final of the J&S Cup in Warsaw in May, Serena Williams in an Italian Open semifinal in May only and Anastasia Myskina in Philadelphia tournament in November. In addition, she represented her country, France in the Fed cup 2003 and helped bringing home the cup.

Mauresmo also succeeded in reaching the semifinals at 2004 Wimbledon, where she eventually lost to Serena Williams. The match was cited as one of the best to be played between two women tennis players. She also managed to reach the quarterfinals of the three other Grand Slam tournaments and along the way won three Tier I titles in Rome, Berlin, and Montreal. At the Athens, Olympic Games single finals she got defeated by Belgian Justine Henin. She got a silver medal for her performance which oscillated her to the no. 1 position in the world rankings where she stayed for 5 whole weeks.

At the U.S. open 2005, upon being beaten by Mary Pierce in the quarterfinals 6–4, 6–1,

Mauresmo geared up for revenge and  claimed her first singles title at the WTA Tour Championships by defeating Pierce in the final 5–7, 7–6, 6–4.

2006 saw her winning three titles including her very first Grand Slam Australian Open besides, Open Gaz de France tournament (defeating Mary Pierce in the final)  in Paris and the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp (defeating Clijsters in the final). After that however, she failed to win any tournaments being defeated in either finals or semi finals. For instance, she lost the final match at Qatar Total Open in Doha to Nadia Petrova, lost the Sony Ericsson Open semifinal in Key Biscayne, Florida to the eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and lost in the fourth round of French Open to Nicole Vaidišová by 6–7(5–7), 6–1, 6–2. But the later part of the year also had good news in store for her. She went on to add two more Grand Slam titles to her kitty with winning the both Wimbledon doubles and singles titles. Her partner for the doubles game was Kuznetsova who later defeated Mauresmo in the China Open final in later part of the year.

She had to pull out of Fed Cup World Group I playoff tie against the Czech Republic and Rogers Cup in Montreal due to a groin injury sustained at Wimbledon. She made a come back with Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Lindsay Davenport 6–4, 7–5. In the U.S.Open semifinal she got beaten by Sharapova 6–0, 4–6, 6–0.and at the end of the year WTA Tour Championships in Madrid, upon being defeated by Henin in the finals she placed at no 3 in the world rankings.

In 2007, Amelie failed to defend her two titles being defeated in the fourth round at the Australian Open and semi finals at the Open Gaz de France. But as luck would have it she grabbed the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, Belgium, after defeating the home favorite Kim Clijsters. This was Mauresmo's third consecutive title there, earning her the diamond encrusted racquet that comes with winning the title at least three times in five years.

Her defeat to Hennin in the final match of Dubai Duty Free Women's Open was consoled by her receiving the Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur from President Jacques Chirac. Due to a sudden attack of appendicitis she had to withdraw from Sony Ericsson Open, Bausch & Lomb Championships and J & S Cup in Warsaw, Poland. She also failed to win any other championships suffering big losses to the likes of Internazionali d'Italia, French Open, International Women's Open. In addition she was also ousted from Wimbledon that year from the fourth round upon accepting defeat at the hands of Czech teen Nicole Vaidišová 7–6(6), 4–6, 6–1.  Her instable health also led her to withdraw from that year’s U.S.Open. The lady also failed to recreate her earlier magic with racquet with losses again in tournaments like China Open, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and the Kremlin Cup.

208 was the year of quarterfinals for Mauresmo as she couldn’t surpass after that particular round in most of the matches she played that year. Some of these matches were Tier III Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts in Gold Coast, Australia (lost to Patty Schnyder), Tier II Open Gaz de France in Paris (lost to Anna Chakvetadze), Tier II Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova) and the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida (lost to Dominika Cibulkova).