The French Tennis Federation (FFT) announced Thursday, December 9, the appointment of Amélie Mauresmo at the head of the Roland-Garros tournament. A first for a woman in the history of the Parisian Grand Slam.
“We are very happy to announce that Amélie Mauresmo will be the new director of Roland-Garros at least for the next three years, until 2024”, announced Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT, describing a “Woman of character who likes to challenge and be challenged (…), embodying renewal and high standards”.
Retired from the courts since 2009, the former world number one succeeds Guy Forget, who led the Parisian Grand Slam since 2016 and the Bercy tournament since 2012. “Guy Forget, arriving at the end of his contract on December 31, 2021, is stepping down as director of the Roland-Garros tournament and of the Rolex Paris Masters”, the FFT said in a statement on December 7.
In an interview given to The team the same day, Forget explained that he did not wish to renew his contract, despite the proposal made by Gilles Moretton, the president of the FFT elected in February, who redefined “The project and [son] action within the federation ”. “But beyond that, from the start of Gilles’ mandate, I felt that communication was not going on (…). Communication never existed with him. And clearly, I felt that there was no trust ”, he justified.
Twenty-five singles titles
Guy Forget’s name was mentioned in early October in the “Pandora Papers”, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, according to which he would have benefited from opaque tax arrangements in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. The ethics committee of the FFT took up this case and cleared the former player on November 5, “In the absence of tax evasion or other established criminally reprehensible behavior”.
The only Frenchwoman to have occupied the world number one place in singles (2004 then 2006), Mauresmo won twenty-five singles titles on the WTA circuit, including two in the Grand Slam: the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006.
In 2018, she had already pierced the glass ceiling of hexagonal tennis by being the first woman to be named captain of a French Davis Cup team, before giving it up to train Frenchman Lucas Pouille. She had previously been chosen as a coach by British champion Andy Murray (2014-2016).
Consultant on Amazon Prime, which broadcast the Roland-Garros tournament in the spring for the first time, she has already held managerial positions as co-organizer of the Coubertin tournament, a former Parisian tournament on the WTA circuit which disappeared in 2015. They will now be two women at the head of Grand Slam tournaments, the Canadian Stacey Allaster being the patron of the US Open since June 2020.