Amélie Mauresmo

Amélie Mauresmo ( born July 5, 1979 in Saint- Germain -en- Laye ) is a former French tennis player.

  • 3.1 Individual
  • 3.2 Double ( 3)

Life

Amélie Mauresmo was delighted with the French Open win her compatriot Yannick Noah in 1983, she pursued on the TV screen, and summed up as just four years old the decision to play tennis.

Amélie Mauresmo is living with her ​​partner in Geneva. In the film Asterix at the Olympic Games, she had a guest appearance.

Since July 19, 2012, she is a team leader of the French Fed Cup team.

Career

In 1996, she won the junior title at the French Open and Wimbledon. The International Tennis Federation appointed her the same year for the Junior World Champion. Your first tournament victory they won in 1999. Their first major success with the team celebrated in 2003 when she won the Fed Cup with the French team.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she won the silver medal; In the final she defeated Justine Henin- Hardenne. On September 13, 2004, she was the first French tennis player number 1 in the WTA world rankings, although it had previously not won a Grand Slam title.

Her first Grand Slam title she won on 28 January 2006. In the final of the Australian Open, she benefited in its own leadership ( 6-1, 2-0) from the task of impaired health Henin- Hardenne. On 8 July 2006, she won her second Grand Slam title at the All England Championships at Wimbledon, where she in the final turn, was able to beat Henin- Hardenne itself. On 3 December 2009, she announced the end of their active tennis career.

Breakthrough 1999: final in Melbourne

In 1999, the unseeded Amélie Mauresmo reached the final of the Australian Open. She was thus the third Frenchwoman who managed to collect in the Open Era in the final of a Grand Slam tournament. She was the first French tennis player Mary Pierce (1995 ), who succeeded in doing so. On the way to the final, the French defeated two seeded players in the semifinals and the former world number one Lindsay Davenport 4:6, 7:5 and 7:5. After the semi-final victory, she turned to the international press and came out as a homosexual. This makes it the second tennis player Martina Navratilova after that publicly acknowledges its homosexuality. In the final, but was defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the world rankings Second Martina Hingis clearly with 2:6 and 3:6. The following important games against Martina Hingis Mauresmo won all of them.

Foray into the world top

In a rush to Amélie Mauresmo established in the WTA world rankings. At the end of 1997 Mauresmo was listed as 109th in the world rankings, a year later they already occupied the 29th place. In 1999, the French reached the top ten in Bratislava and celebrated their first tournament victory against Belgian Kim Clijsters.

The year 2000 began with a tournament victory in Sydney. Amélie Mauresmo reach each two- set victories over the set of five Mary Pierce, the number two Lindsay Davenport and the laws world number one Martina Hingis in the final. The rest of the year was marked by various injury problems.

Won the 2001 French total of four tournaments and Paris ( Indoors ), Nice and Amelia Iceland three in an uninterrupted sequence. After a defeat in Charleston, she won the German Open in Berlin. On the way to win the tournament hit them with Hingis, Capriati Coetzer and three of the top 5 players set. In Rome, she reached the final, beating again the world number one Martina Hingis and moved briefly to fifth place in the world rankings before they stopped injury problems in the middle of the year again.

The year 2002 ended as the sixth Amélie Mauresmo. She won the tournaments of Dubai and Montreal. At the U.S. Open she reached the semi-finals for the first time. She was the first Frenchwoman since Françoise Durr, who succeeded in doing so.

After a further four-month injury lay-off, which lasted until the spring, reached at least the quarter-finals Amélie Mauresmo in 2003 in 14 of 17 tournaments played. She won in Warsaw and Philadelphia and was to defeat one of only three players who succeeded, Venus Williams and Serena Williams in the same year. The greatest success won the French but in a team competition: She led the French team in the Fed Cup victory over the United States. It was the first victory of the French women against the United States after ten defeats. In terms of wins in the individual it is within this competition the most successful French woman of all time. Amélie Mauresmo ended the year as number 4 in the world.

2004: world number one

The year 2004 was successful for Mauresmo to date. She won five tournaments, reached all four Grand Slam tournaments at least the quarter-finals, climbed to the top of the world rankings and moved into the final of the Olympic tournament.

She won the tournament in Berlin and Rome and, after Steffi Graf ( 1987) and Monica Seles (1990 ) only the third player, which is achieved this within a year. She came at the Australian Open, the French Open and the U.S. Open each to the quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, she reached the semifinals, where they 7:6, 5:7 and 4:6 narrowly lost Serena Williams for the first time.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she won the silver medal, she lost the final of the Women's Single Page Justine Henin -Hardenne.

On September 13, 2004, she was the first French tennis player since the inception of computer rankings in the 70s, the world No. 1 ranking. It is one of the few tennis players ( men and women) who achieved the takeover of the top spot without having won a single Grand Slam victory until then. Previously this was succeeded in the women's Kim Clijsters. Mauresmo remained for five weeks, the best tennis player in the world and ended the year in second place behind Lindsay Davenport.

2005: WTA Tour Championships

In 2005 she won the year-end WTA Tour Championships for the first time, the hitherto biggest success of her career. In the final, she jumped residue offset, defeated her compatriot Mary Pierce 5:7, 7:6 and 6:4 and retaliated so for the three-set defeat in the preliminary round group matches. There they also had the number two of the tournament, Kim Clijsters defeated. In the semifinals, the French defeated the Russian defending champion Marija Sharapova 7-6, 6-3.

2006: Victory in the Australian Open and Wimbledon

On 28 January 2006, Mauresmo secured with victory in the Australian Open her first Grand Slam title. In the final she won against the former world number one Henin- Hardenne, the weakened by stomach cramps and circulatory problems during a tour of Mauresmo ( 6-1, 2-0) had to declare their renunciation. Curiously, also Mauresmos semifinal opponent Kim Clijsters had the game can not end. However, Mauresmo had out there and controlled the match for long stretches.

Subsequently, she also won the WTA tournaments in Paris and Antwerp. Thus, winning three consecutive tournaments until the end of March. Including the Australian Open, she won 16 games in a row.

At the Qatar Total Open, she defeated in the semifinals her old rival Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-2 before losing in the final against Nadia Petrova. In victory Mauresmo had again taken the lead in the world rankings already at this time. This they achieved then - without a fight - March 20: Neither Clijsters still Mauresmo due to injury could play in Indian Wells. But the Belgian had to defend more points from the previous year.

The second Grand Slam tournament of the year, the French Open in Paris, proved to be rather bad patch. In emergence as the world number one and top seed player, they failed in the second round of the 17 -year-old Nicole Vaidišová. The Czech teen destroyed with 6:7, 6:1 and 6:2 all the hopes of the French on a triumphal her compatriot at Roland Garros. It never occurred to the French on the " terre battue " beyond the quarter-finals.

On July 8, the world number one Mauresmo succeeded the biggest triumph of her career. She defeated on the " hallowed turf " of Wimbledon against Justine Henin- Hardenne. This was also the first victory of a French woman at Church Road since the legendary Suzanne Lenglen in 1925.

2007

In 2007, Mauresmo became the first player of the diamond-studded racket worth one million euros of the Proximus Diamond Games (Antwerp ), which is awarded to players who win the tournament three times in five years. Mauresmo hat-trick with wins in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the final she beat Kim Clijsters in straight sets. On 2 April 2007 she was awarded the Laureus Award in the category of "Breakthrough of the Year".

Not least because of injuries fell the French during the season way back. The 2008 season they could not finish in the top 20 for the first time in ten years.

2009

Her first title in over two years Mauresmo won in 2009 just before his home crowd in Paris. After smooth victories in the first two rounds, she swept the quarter-finals, the top- ten player Agnieszka Radwańska 6-2, 6-0 from the square. They then defeated the world number three Jelena Janković and in a high class final world ranking fourth Elena Dementieva. The victory Mauresmo managed nevertheless again made ​​it into the Top 20, the third WTA double titles of her career she won the WTA Miami. In the final, she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova with Kveta Peschke pairing / Lisa Raymond 4:6, 6:3, 10:3. Peschke / Raymond was thus the third set team, Kuznetsova / Mauresmo defeated on their way to victory at the WTA tournament in Miami. On 3 December 2009 Mauresmo said in Paris the end of their career.

Tournament Win (28 )

Singles

Double ( 3)

  • 2000: Linz, Austria ( with Chanda Rubin)
  • 2006: Hastings Direct in Eastbourne, Great Britain ( with Svetlana Kuznetsova )
  • 2009: Miami, United States ( with Svetlana Kuznetsova )

Performance at Grand Slam tournaments

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