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One of our own stands atop the
tennis world after the seasons first Grand Slam.
For the past few years I highly
doubted I would put those words down in a column. Amelie
Mauresmo didn’t give me or anyone else in the tennis world
much reason to believe she would ever win “The Big One.”
We’ve gone through the repeated disappointments of the
French Woman who hadn’t even made a trip to a Final in a
Grand Slam since her first and only back in 1999 (a loss to
Martina Hingis in the Finals of this same tournament.)
A Mauresmo victory over
Justine Henin-Hardenne could completely change the course of
her career. Or, it could be a blip on the radar as she fades
into the backdrop of the tennis world. The latter might be
just fine with most of the gay media that completely ignored
her run through this tournament. Instead, some chose to do
stories on the final season of "Will and Grace" or something
else that was more “juicy” than the out-lesbian winning one
of the four major professional tennis tournaments. As a news
director put it to me: “What's the gay angle here???”
 To
give this story its full attention, we have to be fair and
put this win into some sort of context. It has to be said
that Mauresmo’s last two victories in her first Grand Slam
win came with injury forfeits. That’s a first for a Grand
Slam winner. I’ve read some reports and even heard some make
mentions of asterisks when jotting this Grand Slam win for
Mauresmo into the record books. While it needs to be
something we need to remember, it’s absurd to suggest this
Grand Slam win by Mauresmo be treated differently than any
other before it.
She was playing stellar
tennis in the Finals and Justine Henin-Hardenne wasn’t
beating her even with a healthy stomach. By the way, my
tummy would ache too if I got my ass handed to me the way
she did in the first set. Amelie rolled through this
tournament with relative ease. Her game never looked so
complete. Some may ask whether she would have won her
semifinal match against Kim Clijsters had that match
continued. (Clijsters suffered a severe ankle injury and had
to forfeit the match.) We’ll never know the answer to that
question.
The bottom line is, she was
playing well enough to win. She deserves this. After all the
heartache over the past seven years, she deserves this.
She’s been much maligned in the media for not being the
dynamic superstar or having the charms of a Serena or Venus
Williams or the star appeal of a Maria Sharapova. She’s 26
years old. She’s mature. She will value this victory more
than any other that has come before it, and more than any
that would follow.
Given her advanced age by tennis standards, we’re left
wondering what Amelie Mauresmo’s career could have been had
she won this tournament several years ago. But revisionist
history will do little good now. We have to look ahead.
Given her victory at the seasons first Grand Slam, we’re
forced to examine the possibility of her winning the final
three Slam events. Why not Amelie? She has one of the most
complete games out there. The question to me has always been
that of her mental game. This one breakthrough win in
Melbourne could change all of that. The next time she’s in a
tight spot in the French Open or at Wimbledon, she may
persevere instead of wilting. There’s no way to tell how the
win in Melbourne will ultimately impact her remaining years
on the tour. She’s healthy and that seems to be the hardest
thing to be on the tour these days. She has a good game on
clay (she’s French, she better have a good game on clay.) A
win at Roland Garros and suddenly she’s halfway there.
About 14 months ago, I
wrote a column for Outsports talking about Amelie
Mauresmo's disappointments. I said she shouldn’t have been
ranked No. 1 at that time without having won a Grand Slam
event. Some thought it was unfair to judge her primarily on
her lack of Grand Slam titles. But that’s ultimately what
the games greatest are remembered by. Look at Roger Federer.
Seven Grand Slam titles at the age of 24. Halfway to Pete
Sampras mark of 14. Nobody’s talking about all the Bulgarian
opens he’s won. They talk about the Slams. That’s the
measuring stick. It’s not about career earnings or total
tournaments won; it’s about the Slams. Amelie has one now,
and that’s something that can never be taken away.
My biggest gripe in all of this comes with the gay media
They all have essentially forgotten about Amelie Mauresmo
and all of the other out athletes in the sports world. We’re
so preoccupied with the ones that aren’t coming out, that we
forget about the ones who boldly take the step out of the
safe confines of the sports closet.
I watched both gay TV
Networks (LOGO and Q-Television), checked all the popular
gay websites and saw little or no coverage on Mauresmo’s run
through the seasons first Grand Slam. One news director
said, “Call me on Monday if she wins.” That’s a
telling quote, it shows how spoiled we’ve become by the few
current and retired athletes that have come out of the
closet. We fail to realize that there are many more who sit
in hiding, waiting for a time when they feel it may be
alright to reveal themselves.
Amelie Mauresmo came out at a
time when it wasn’t the cool thing to do. She was even
ridiculed by her opponent in the 1999 Australian Open finals
for being too manly. Oh how quickly we forget. We’ve become
so spoiled that the out athlete now has to win (or be
arrested or something salacious) in order to be valued by
the gay media as a story. In the coming days, I’ll be
looking to interview Amelie Mauresmo on my radio program. I
hope she accepts. Then I can apologize to her. I won’t
apologize for what some may have misconstrued as unfair
criticism. I’ll instead apologize on behalf of the gay media
that has forgotten her and as a result, missed out on
covering a big victory not only for Amelie, but for the gay
community.
Jason Page
hosts a daily overnight sports-talk show on Sirius Satellite
Radio (Sirius Sports 123) at 2 a.m. Eastern.
Jan. 31, 2006 |
