This will be the first woman to lead the legendary Porte d’Auteuil tournament: Amélie Mauresmo takes over from Guy Forget at the head of Roland-Garros, the FFT president announced on Thursday. The former world number 1 will remain in office “At least until 2024”.
“I am extremely proud and honored that Gilles Moretton and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra wanted to entrust me with the reins of this tournament which symbolizes so many memories in my personal and sporting life. I accepted this position of director of the tournament with clear strong ambitions. I will wear them with the high standards, the freedom and the passion that have always inspired me ”, reacted the ex-champion in a press release.
The appointment of Mauresmo is not a big surprise as the forty-something has marked the history of her sport for two decades. As a player first of all, she dominated the women’s circuit with head and shoulders in the 2000s, to the point of squatting first place in the standings in 2004 and 2006 (39 weeks in total) and winning two Grand tournaments. Slam (Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006), a Masters (in 2005) and a silver medal at the Athens Olympics (2004).
Since her sports retirement, taken in 2009 at just 30, she has never strayed far from the courts. We quickly find her as a consultant on television, commenting on the matches of her former opponents for France television, Eurosport and more recently Amazon Prime.
Multi-caps
At the same time, she is involved with several players, advising Michaël Llodra, Victoria Azarenka or Marion Bartolli in the early 2010s. Then coaching the Scottish star Andy Murray (from 2014 to 2016) and Lucas Pouille (2019 to 2020), in breaking down some barriers in a still very macho men’s circuit. To these already time-consuming functions, she added the captaincy of the French Fed Cup team, which she occupied from 2013 to 2016, without ever succeeding in leading the French to the coronation despite a final during her last year.
In the middle of all this, Amélie Mauresmo also found the time to co-lead the Open GDF-Suez, from 2011 to 2014, a Parisian tournament that she had won three times as a player. Seeing her today take the head of Roland-Garros is therefore only a logical continuation in this retirement, to say the least, full.
The name of Amélie Mauresmo circulated in the highest spheres of French tennis since Guy Forget announced Tuesday refusing to continue to lead Roland-Garros and the Rolex Paris Masters (the second biggest tournament in France). In an interview given to the team, he explained that the current had always gone badly with the new boss of the federation, elected in February. “Communication never existed with him. And clearly I felt there was no trust, he explained to the sports daily. I don’t blame anyone but at the same time that I speak to you, I feel both sad to leave people that I love very much and relieved. ”
Despite the rumors, Guy Forget had denied that his departure had any connection with the Pandora Papers. His name had nevertheless emerged in this XXL data leak, revealed by the International Consotium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), bringing to light a very large-scale tax fraud. The ethics committee of the FFT had taken up this case and had cleared Forget, on November 5, “In the absence of tax evasion or other established criminally reprehensible behavior”.
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