Wimbledon might be one of the biggest events on the lesbian sports calendar, but the number of openly gay girls knocking balls around center court is few and far between. The two best known are Amelie Mauresmo, the reigning world number one, and Martina Navratilova, whose status as an icon of women's athletics elevates her to the mono-name realm, a la Madonna.
This was Martina's last showing at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Martina ended her Wimbledon career when she and her partner Liezel Huber were defeated by the Chinese pair Zi Yan and Jie Zheng during the quarterfinals of the Ladies' Doubles.
On Saturday Mauresmo became the 2006 Wimbledon Ladies' Singles champion handily defeating Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mauresmo is the first Frenchwoman to win the title in 81 years. The title is her second Grand Slam victory this year. In 1999, Mauresmo, who at 20 years-old had just reached the finals of the Australian Open, came out and her tennis game has improved because of it.
Mauresmo, who just turned 27 during Wimbledon, first picked up a racquet at the age of 6 after being inspired by fellow Frenchman Yannick Noah's victory at the French Open. She moved away to a tennis school at 11 to perfect her game and by 1996 Mauresmo had captured the world junior championship. Just four years after turning professional, Mauresmo found herself in the finals of the Australian Open after having just defeated American Lindsay Davenport.
The international press had routinely badgered Mauresmo about boyfriends and in a press conference before the Australian Open finals, Mauresmo came out in an unceremonious, yet poignant fashion. In response to a question about French nightclub owner Sylvie Bourdon who was not far from Mauresmo's side throughout the tournament, Mauresmo said, “You can say she's my girlfriend. You can write about her…I don't want to hide Sylvie. I love her.”
Any rumors about Mauresmo's sexuality were immediately put to rest, but it her competitors didn't completely embrace her candor and identity. Martina Hingis, who defeated Mauresmo in the finals of that tournament, infamously called her competitor “half a man.” The dig was nothing knew for Mauresmo, who being extremely muscular, has faced accusations of performance-enhancing drug use in the past.
Mauresmo's disclosure of her sexuality seemed to do little to hurt her career or the image of the sport. Her major sponsors stuck with her and supported her decision to come out. Over her professional career, Mauresmo has won 22 singles titles, including the 2006 Australian Open where she nabbed the trophy after competitor Henin-Hardenne retired in the second set due to illness. Throughout her years on the professional tour, Mauresmo has earned $10,961,769, $1.4 million of that coming from this year alone. In 2004 she became the first French woman to receive a number one ranking and regained that top spot this year.
In contrast, Martina, who came out publicly in The Advocate in 1991, lost sponsor support and became a kind of pariah in the tennis world. Clearly, she dominated the game, winning 18 Grand Slam singles titles and 40 Grand Slam doubles titles, putting her in the pantheon of tennis greats like fellow lesbian Billie Jean King and Margaret Court, the only woman to have won more Grand Slam titles than Martina. But her lesbianism was considered antithetical to the wholesome image women's tennis was trying to portray.
For years, the sport saw the rivalry of Chris Evert, America's golden girl, and Martina, an Eastern-bloc bruiser, grow. The contrast between the two was stark, except for their playing, which was fierce on both sides of the net. Despite her clear mastery of the game, Martina was routinely snubbed by sponsors in favor of more feminine, graceful athletes.
With Martina bowing out of the game at 49 years-old, it will be up to others--including Mauresmo--to carry on the mantle of lesbian tennis star. Not that Mauresmo is any great crusader for LGBT issues. She keeps her sexuality to herself after her very public declaration in 1999. Since then she has two long-term relationships, but Mauresmo learned from her relationship with Bourdon to guard her privacy a little more carefully.
She has been seen in the spectators boxes with her girlfriends and the television cameras often cut to a shot of her girlfriend in the stands, but other than that, Mauresmo's private life is kept under wraps, as is Martina's. Neither Mauresmo, nor Martina fete any LGBT causes, though Martina did sign a handsome six-figure contract with Olivia Travel in 2005.
Another out lesbian player at Wimbledon this year, Australian-born Rennae Stubbs, has a reputation for candor about her sexuality. Stubbs and her doubles partner Cara Black lost in straight sets to Zi Yan and Jie Zheng in the women's doubles semi-finals on Friday. In 2001, Stubbs and her doubles partner, Lisa Raymond--with whom Stubbs was once in a long-term relationship--won Ladies' Doubles at Wimbledon.
Stubbs has become quite open about her lesbianism in recent years, and has said that she hopes this will have a positive impact on others. TheAge.com quotes Stubbs as stating, ""I'd just like to be a little bit more open about it now because I want some 16-year-old girl out there to think, 'It's OK'. All it is is somebody loving somebody."
