Mauresmo is trying to deal with her emotions in a better way

Will this be the year? As the owners of one Mr T. Henman, Not Quite There, Wimbledon SW19, this nation is fully equipped to ponder such questions in tennis circles. And it turns out it applies elsewhere too: this all-too-human phenomenon of crumpling under the weight of home expectation.

Across the channel, for instance, where Amelie Mauresmo, the first Frenchwoman ever to become world No. 1 (five weeks last year), is yet to match her country?s aspirations with a Grand Slam title. Preferably, the French Grand Slam title.

They love her. She is as French as baguettes, unlike Mary Pierce (latterly French, previously Canadian and partially American) who won at Roland Garros five years ago. Mauresmo is all Gaul, a statuesque figure, mocked and derided in her teens, who found the courage to acknowledge to the world that she was a lesbian and went on to practise the subtle arts of her tennis whatever the condemnation. There was none.

Her country admired her openness. Women?s tennis thanked God for her frankness. There was no scandal, no controversy, no cover-up, just a woman coming to terms with herself and a decent backhand.

?It was frightening at the beginning,? she said. ?I didn?t understand. All the attention. I couldn?t understand how people could be so rude, but then I grew up, got some maturity. Maybe the players felt threatened by me, but that was six years ago now. To me, it seems like another life. I?ve done so many things, achieved so much since. I have really found myself as a woman, as a tennis player, in my head.?

The rudeness to which she alluded fell heedlessly from the lips of her fellow tennis players, amazed by the sight of the quietly spoken French 19-year-old, as she was then, reaching the final of the Australian Open with a set of fully grown shoulders and a highly muscular physique.

Lindsay Davenport, who lost to her in the semi-final, said, with a terrible tang of sour grapes: ?She played like a man.? Martina Hingis, who beat her in the final, called her ?half a man?.

These were flame-throwing insults that would have embittered and broken lesser characters. Mauresmo is neither of the above. She is, remarkably in the upper echelons of women?s tennis, punctual, unfussy, apparently not of a royal bloodline and, above all, pleasantly mild-mannered. There is not a mean bone in her. Marvellous for friendships. Almost fatal for sport.

?Some players need to hate their opponents. Others need to be indifferent. Indifferent, yes?? she asked, testing the adequacy of her intelligent English.

?I do not need to hate my opponent. That?s not how I have been raised. Maybe sometimes I am not mean enough. Maybe I should be a little more angry. But you cannot change yourself like this.? She clicked her fingers.

Mauresmo has a fine record of not changing herself at whim. She has clung to a different line throughout her life when a lie might have been easier, at least superficially. ?When I came out, it was tough. I wasn?t ready for it, I didn?t understand. Probably my parents didn?t appreciate it, even though they knew what my life was. I had known for a while. I had been asking myself some questions. The knowledge just happened. But society prepares you to grow up one way and that?s why you ask yourself the questions. You are not sure if you are normal.?

She was certainly unprepared for the initial interest and was possibly encouraged into her revelations by her girlfriend at the time, who owned a bar in St Tropez and seemed to revel in the attention. Compare that hopelessly unprotected girl with the woman of 25 who drove to Antwerp on Monday in her smoke-grey Porsche with the serious intention of winning the Diamond Games Indoor Tournament and you see the distinct alteration.

?I am emotional still, but I am trying to deal with it in a better way. Sometimes it?s a problem, but sometimes also it is a great feeling, one of joy, happiness, adrenalin. Imagine if your whole life was just nothing.?

She drew a flat line across the air in front of her and looked disgusted at the mere thought of emulating Bjorn Borg?s expressionism. ?I have always been very emotional and very attracted to emotional things.?

Perhaps Mauresmo is tennis?s Edith Piaf. It may explain the mutual affection between herself and her French audience. They love her complications.

?They see me as an honest person with some strong positioning on the subjects I care about. They see me as a passionate person. They recognise themselves in the struggles I have, perhaps. I try to share things with people.?

In which case, the French are suffering the same theatrical campaigns in which the Brits excel. She has been No. 1 in the world, true, but she has also lost, sometimes catastrophically in the cauldron of Roland Garros.

She reached the semi-final at Wimbledon last year, slicing and sweeping backhands at a discomforted Serena Williams, but not sufficiently armoured in self-belief to deliver the coup de grace. She yearned to win an Olympic gold medal in Athens, but came away with the silver instead.

She lives alongside the reputation for arch-vulnerability in a crisis. Where is that Grand Slam title? ?It will come,? she said simply. ?I think everyone has their own speed. I take a little more time to get my maturity than the Williams sisters or the Belgians. It?s the way I am. I?m happy with that.?

Aged four, little Amelie simply settled down to watch Yannick Noah win the French Open with her mother Francoise and thought: I would like to do that too. She left her parents at 11 to be schooled in tennis by the French Federation. She became conspicuously good. She was the world No. 1 Junior. She won the French and Wimbledon Junior titles in 1996.

'As for her lifestyle, it marks her out as a woman imbued with courage and frankness. ?Nobody cares about it now. They?ve stopped making an issue of it. I think people see the tennis player. I was once very public about my private life. Now I want to preserve ? can you say that? Preserve? ? my privacy. I want to live it in a quiet way. Whether I bring my girl friend to Wimbledon, I don?t know yet. I?ll see. I want to protect her. But I think they wouldn?t know. I don?t worry about it too much. It?s OK. I?ve been in much tougher situations.?

She does not court the media, but she does not repel them either. A push me- pull you, Posh and Becks situation has no allure whatsoever. ?All the eyes on them,? she said in horrified wonderment. ?What they do, how they dress, the new jewel. I could not be like that. I give a lot to the media but I also have my private side.?

Then she has her outspoken side. She did not disguise her disapproval of the war in Iraq when she was touring, of all places, the US last year. ?For a British paper this is maybe a sensitive issue?? she courteously enquired.

?But I have to say I am proud that our President had this position of not going to Iraq. People asked me and I said I was against these things. I understand that sometimes you want to dominate and fight, but I?m not sure that?s the answer.?