Amelie Mauresmo

Tennis Player

Amelie Mauresmo won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments in 2006. They were her first major championships, but Mauresmo was already among the elite of women's tennis, known in particular for her powerful physique and athletic game. Mauresmo played in her first professional tournaments in 1995, and qualified for her first French Open the same year. She claimed her first WTA title in Bratislava in 1999. The same year, she made headlines off the court after telling a French newspaper that she was gay. She won another 20 tournaments before her 2006 breakthroughs at Australia and Wimbledon. (She defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in the finals of both tournaments.) Mauresmo was ranked number one in the world for five weeks in 2004, becoming the first French woman to hold that position since the era of computer rankings began in 1975. She won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Extra credit: Mauresmo is right-handed... She is 5'9" (1.75 meters) tall, according to her World Tennis Association profile.

Other tennis stars of Mauresmo's era include Switzerland's Martina Hingis, America's Serena Williams, and Belgium's Kim Clijsters.