Amélie Mauresmo
At 19 she spoke openly about her girlfriend during the Australian Open – and endured taunts on her way to becoming world number one.
Amélie Mauresmo grew up near Paris and picked up a tennis racket at the age of four, inspired by Yannick Noah’s victory at the French Open in 1983. In 1996 she won the junior titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.
In January 1999, aged 19 and unseeded, she reached the final of the Australian Open. During the tournament she spoke openly about being a lesbian and introduced her girlfriend to the press – something hardly anyone on the women’s tour had done since Martina Navratilova. After losing to Mauresmo in the semi-final, Lindsay Davenport said she had felt as if she were playing a man; she later apologised. Martina Hingis, her opponent in the final, was quoted as calling her “half a man”. Mauresmo lost the final, but said she was relieved no longer to have to hide whom she loved.
She went on to become one of the best players in the world. In 2004 she won Olympic silver in Athens and became the first French player to reach world number one. In 2006 she won the Australian Open and Wimbledon – the first French woman to win Wimbledon since Suzanne Lenglen.
After retiring in 2009 she became a coach, including for Andy Murray, one of the first women to coach a top male player. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2015 and in 2021 became tournament director of the French Open. Her appearance in Melbourne in 1999 is still regarded as a milestone for the visibility of lesbian women in sport.