A day of golden Parisian light and fragrant summer breezes...A day of anticipation at Roland Garros stadium on the first day of the 1999 French Open. The tennis fans pour out of the Metro at Porte d'Auteuil. Towering above them, 75 feet high and covering the walls of two buildings, is the muscular figure of Amelie Mauresmo, la nouvelle coqueluche("the new darling") of the French sporting public, serving an ace. The billboard is there courtesy of her sponsor, Nike, who got out the paint to replace Ronaldo, the Brazilian soccer idol, with its newest superstar.

As crowds walk along the great avenue of horse chestnut trees that leads to the stadium, young women in green and gold dresses, more numerous than the ticket touts, are handing out publicity flyers for another young tennis star, the blonde and genetically-gifted Anna Kournikova. The flyer shows "The Golden Girl's" feminine curves accented by a canary-yellow minidress.

(If you'd played your cards right during the French Open, you could have acquired an authentic piece of Kournikova's dress, free of charge from the Adidas stand, "while stocks last"...The equivalent prize in medieval Europe would have been a fragment of the Holy Cross.)

The biggest similarity between the two stars...other than the commercial behemoth of sponsorship behind them...has to do with the emphasis on their sexuality. While Kournikova is known for her Lolita looks and body-hugging outfits, Mauresmo attained stardom last January at the Australian Open when she announced her homosexuality and named her partner. She did this openly, unequivocally, even joyously. And in case the point wasn't quite clear, she leapt into the arms of her lover and exchanged hugs and kisses after upsetting No. 1 ranked Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals.

This jaw-dropping display of affection was a first in sports history. Other athletes have announced their homosexuality, of course, but never so early in their careers and never so forthrightly. Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, two of the world's most famous gay athletes, came out reluctantly and to little enthusiasm from crowds and sponsors. (Both King and Navratilova lost millions of dollars.) "It was a very brave thing for Amelie to do," say Navratilova. "Still, I would rather it was her tennis, not her sexual preference, that made the headlines."

Wishful thinking. Within hours of Mauresmo's declaration to a French reporter at the Australian Open that she was with her new amie...adding pointedly, that's "amie" with an "e" on the end....newspapers around the world were trumpeting the story. While the Women's Tennis Association desperately tried to steer the reporters to other subjects, the crowds rallied behind Mauresmo , cheering
"Allez, Amelie, alleeez!" at her matches. "I've never seen anyone, in any sport, rise from anonymity to superstar status so rapidly," says London SUNDAY TIMES tennis writer Richard Evans.

The groundswell for the 19-year old was fueled by a backlash against homophobic remarks made by her peers in Australia. Lindsay Davenport, who the unseeded Mauresmo outpsyched and outplayed in the semifinals, complained after the match, "Her shoulders looked huge to me...I think they must have grown," and added that at times she had the impression she was "playing against a guy." Martina Hingis, who defeated Mauresmo in the final, jumped on the trash wagon, calling the young French player "half a man," adding sneeringly, "she's here with her girlfriend."

(Davenport later apologized in writing to Mauresmo, saying she was refering only to her tennis, an apology the young Frenchwoman accepted graciously. Hingis' response was more grudging, and bad blood continues between the players.)
Back in France, the homophobia helped crystallize public opinion into national sentiment. "How dare Hingis make derogatory remarks about our homegrown champion!" French headlines roared. When Mauresmo and her girlfriend, Sylvie Bourdon, returned to Paris after a 10-day post-Australia vacation in the South Pacific, they were newly-minted celebrities. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin invited Mauresmo to a high-profile International Women's Day reception, where they were photographed together(more for his benefit than hers). Mauresmo's face became familiar throughout France from countless magazine, newspaper, and television interviews. Videos of Mauresmo in action played over and over in Paris' leading lesbian bar.

And a reverential Web site run by a young Austrian male enthusiast began reporting her every move. (His response to a fan who wanted to see "a topless picture" of Mauresmo and her girlfriend was blunt and protective. "Would you like to see a nude picture of yourself on the Internet? I suppose not! Neither do Amelie and Sylvie.")

Most significantly, all of Mauresmo's sponsors..Nike, Dunlop, Babolat, and Gaz de France...rallied behind her. "We are a massive supporter of Amelie as a tennis player and believe she has the potential to be the best in the world," says Nick Blofeld, Dunlop's international marketing director for tennis. "we signed her up two and a half years ago...we were attracted by her athleticism, skill, and dedication. Her sexuality is her own business and has no impact on our sponsorship."

The acid test of acceptance has always been sponsors' reactions, and Mauresmo seems fully confident of her marketability. If, for any reason, sponsors were to turn against her, she says "there'll be dozens more who will take me....if they let me go for that, they are jerks anyway."

In fact, Mauresmo's manager, Ivan Brixi of Advantage International, reports that since Mauresmo's declaration, two new sponsors, both French, have signed on. The are Moulinex(electrical appliances) and TPS(a cable TV network). Talks are also underway with other potential sponsors, her manager says, adding, "The cases of Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova are not a good comparison. That was a different time, a different era."

So the scene is set. Mauresmo becomes a bona fide national hero and the fairy tale should have a happy ending. In the traditional story, the gay athlete comes out, suffers public criticism but finds personal happiness. In this tale, however, the opposite appears to have happened: the public responds with love and support while the athlete's personal life enters a rocky period. None of it is surprising, of course. When Mauresmo came out so dramatically, she crossed a new frontier and assumed a burden that Anna Kournikova and other heterosexual athletes would never have to bear. Pioneers usually find there is a price tag to their daring, and Mauresmo was about to foot the bill.

The whirlwind romance started last November, when Bourdon, 32, the co-owner of a restaurant in St. Tropez, asked her childhood friend, Isabelle Demongeot, a former player on the women's tour, to introduce her to Mauresmo, whom she had watched on television. Demongeot, who coaches several players, invited Mauresmo and Bourdon to a dinner party at her home outside Paris. It was a "coup-de-foudre" (love at first sight). "They hit it off immediately," says Demongeot. Mauresmo soon left Paris to live with Bourdon in St. Tropez and began working with one of Demongeot's coaches, Christophe Fournerie. She increased her weight training and running, and her game intensified along with her love life. "Looking up at Sylvie during matches gave me that little extra support that I needed," Mauresmo said at the Australian Open in January. "Finding her and having such a good personal life now has made the difference in my tennis. It has been the missing part of my life."
Bourdon seemed to enjoy the publicity at the Australian Open, too, and began giving interviews of her own. "I am Amelie's lover, not her psychiatrist," she told reporters. "But we talk, and talk is like therapy so that she feels more positive and confident about herself and her tennis. She wasn't getting that kind of support. Now she has a good balance in her life, and she is happy."

In February, Mauresmo reached the quarterfinals of the Gaz de France Open in Paris...and a rematch with her new arch rival Martina Hingis. When Mauresmo took the court, fans were primed to boo Hingis, who remarked afterward that the atmosphere reminded her more of "a soccer match. It could have been France against Brazil." When Mauresmo won, the crowd went wild. "It was the most incredible feeling," she said. "People gave me so much support and energy. They really made me want to play my best. I've always known I had the capability; it just finally felt so good to play so well and come through with the big victory." Other observers were astonished by the public condemnation of Hingis. "They were booing because she is homophobic," marveled LE MONDE'S Benedicte Mathieu. "On that day they were all defending Amelie against Hingis."

Mauresmo and Bourdon returned to St. Tropez in mid-February. Mauresmo's own game plan had been to get her private life out in the open and move on. But a sports mad world, fed by a ravenous press, dictated otherwise. Now, when she arrived at practice, she found fans crowding around the court, begging for autographs. Wherever she went, she was pursued. Gay groups besieged her with requests. (In April, Mauresmo publicly endorsed a bill in the French parliament which would give gay and lesbian partners the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.) Activists pressured her to talk only to the gay and the French press. The pressure took its toll. Soon, Mauresmo was cutting back on her workouts.

Eyebrows rose in March when Bourdon took over Christophe Fournerie's coaching duties for the spring tournament circuit in the United States. "I can chart Amelie's matches and help with her tennis," explained Bourdon, who had once been a junior player. "There is no reason to have someone else all the time. It is easier with just the two of us."

By the time Mauresmo arrived in the United States, it was clear she wasn't the same player she had been in Australia. The sparkle was gone from her eyes, and the spark had vanished from her game. She had lost 15 pounds, her muscular physique had shrunk, apparently from lack of training. Her moods were as erratic as her ground strokes. Instead of practicing, she played Pac-Man for hours in the players' lounge.

Other players complained about the couple's displays of affection. "Why does she have to be so openly affectionate with Bourdon?" asked one. "Get a hotel room," snickered another.

While fans cheered Mauresmo, tour officials privately worried about the high-profile romance. The Women's Tennis Association was searching for a world-wide sponsor and was clearly uncomfortable with news of players' sexuality. "We have players from more than 70 different countries on the tour, people from every race, color, and creed. We're not interested in social or political agendas. We're only interested in marketing the players."

WTA officials went so far as to scold reporters who gave Bourdon coverage and sought to keep Mauresmo's press conferences focused on tennis. "This is totally not classy to write about Amelie's girlfriend," one WTA official reprimanded a journalist. Officials warned Mauresmo not to air her private life in the papers, and she got the message. "I want the press to focus on my tennis now and not my private life," she announced.

The first signs of trouble in Mauresmo's game appeared in March at the Lipton Championships in Florida where she suffered a dismal third-round loss. Isabelle Demongeot joined Mauresmo and Bourdon at the next tournament at Hilton Head, South Carolina, but a few days of her coaching couldn't compensate for a lack of training.
Mauresmo's racquet preparation was late and her foot speed sluggish. This time, she lost in the second round. From the beginning to the end of May, her ranking would slip from No. 10 to No. 17. Still, her entourage's hopes were high. "Amelie can get it all back," assured Demongeot. "She still has the ability and talent. It's a question of motivation. So much came so quickly that Amelie was emotionally exhausted. I'm not surprised she did not do well in the U.S. tournaments. But you wait. She will gear back up."

By the eve of the French open in May, the French public had whipped itself into a state of high anticipation, especially when the draw revealed that Mauresmo would meet top-seeded Hingis in the second round. Mauresmo admitted at a press conference before the match that Hingis' comments were still in her head. "It's part of my motivation against her," she said.

The match unfolded as a tense gladitorial contest. The players contrasting personalities and styles were captured by their headgear. Hingis wore a neat, white headband, her hair tied in a short, high ponytail. Mauresmo was casual, boyish, slightly cocky with a white baseball cap on backward. The shadows were lengthening over a capacity crowd when the players came on at 6:30 PM. Mauresmo seemed withdrawn and tentative. Nevertheless, the partisan crowd made its intentions clear, cheering Mauresmo's shots and booing Hingis' in the warm-up period. Mauresmo began the match hitting her stinging, topspin ground strokes while Hingis was nervous and unsettled.

But Hingis found her confidence, helped by the support of a small but vociferous group of fans waving a Swiss flag. She cranked up her game, silencing the Amelie fan club. Mauresmo, who had already started to make unforced errors, began to fade, reflecting her inexperience in big match play, and perhaps her own nerves. A silver moon made its appearance and within an hour, it was all over.

What happened next stunned tennis officials and the few reporters who were waiting for the players to leave the court. As a dejected Mauresmo entered the passageway to the locker room, Bourdon appeared suddenly.
"Merde! Merde!" she screamed at the teenager. "How could you do this? What is wrong with you? You have ruined everything! I can't believe the way you played! You were shit, absolute shit!"

As Bourdon jabbed her finger in Mauresmo's face, the shocked teenager skittered around her and made a beeline for the locker room door. A security guard stepped in front of the entrance, barring Bourdon from following.
"How can she go out and play like that after all the work, all the trouble?" Bourdon wailed. "With everyone watching, she plays like shit!" As Mauresmo's sobs echoed from the locker room, Bourdon continued. "This wasn't handled right! There was too much press, too many demands, too much on Amelie. This was all wrong. It was handled all wrong."

The scene was a sad and disturbing sequel to Mauresmo's Australian Open showing five months earlier. Since then, it has prompted questions about the young player's emotional stability and her relationship with Bourdon. Has intense publicity derailed Mauresmo's promising rise? Is she the victim of a controlling older woman? Can she handle the pressure of being the world's most famous gay female athlete? Or is this yet another cautionary tale of a vulnerable youngster adrift in a sport littered with great expectations sadly unfulfilled?

One day after the explosive scene with Bourdon at the French Open, Mauresmo turned her ankle during a doubles match and tore a ligament. The injury forced her to skip Wimbledon and undergo six weeks of rehabilitation. Ivan Brixi says she is fit again and has started training. "She will return to competitive tennis in late July or early August and play in one or two tournaments...then she will play at the U.S. Open," he said. Brixi, understandably, downplays the problems Mauresmo has been experiencing. He says the relationship with Bourdon is fine, and that the couple continue to live together in St. Tropez. As for the coaching, he explains that Fournerie, her coach at the start of the year, and Bourdon's friend, Demongeot, will share dual roles, meaning one or the other will accompany Mauresmo to tournaments.

Mauresmo has acknowledged the pressure she has been under during the past six months. "It's been absolutely unbelievable, the reaction since the Australian Open final and the Paris(Gaz)Open final," she told a reporter. "I never expected this. I always thought I could be a great player and No.1, but never thought I would get this attention. It has been great, but also very difficult. All the other stuff, the media, the attention, takes away my energy. Sometimes, it is too much. My life has really changed, and there is much more for me to think about. It is not just playing tennis anymore."

Young players usually turn to their families in moments of crisis. However, Mauresmo's relationship with her family...father, Francis, a chemical engineer; mother, Francoise, a homemaker; and older brother Fabien, a student...took a turn for the worse when she came out in January. "They have trouble with my being gay, and they don't know how to handle it," said Mauresmo, who did begin speaking to them by telephone in May in an attempt to bridge the divide. "It's been very difficult not talking to them," she acknowledges. "It's always best to be able to talk to your parents, but I can only be who I am. I cannot change for them."
Her parents are the ones who encouraged Amelie when she fell in love with tennis while watching Yannick Noah win the 1983 French Open on TV. Just four years old, she asked for a racquet and was soon hitting forehands and backhands off the garden wall. Instructors at a local tennis club immediately recognized her natural ability. Her determination and confidence were almost comical. The tennis club president, Andre Mallet told "The Irish Times"..." One day Amelie saw Steffi Graf being interviewed on TV, and Steffi said her girlhood ambition had been to beat Martina Navratilova. Amelie turned and said, "Well, one day I'll beat Steffi." On another occasion, she announced she was going to learn English. "So that I can manage interviews after I've won big tournaments."

Mauresmo's passion for tennis led to her decision to move away from home and live at the national tennis training school in central France when she was 11. Two years later, she was accepted at the national sports training center in Vincennes, near Paris, which was home to the country's elite athletes. She won the junior French and Wimbledon titles in 1996 at 16, and players remember her turning heads that year when she appeared at the Wimbledon champions ball in a stunning ankle-length black dress. Her personality kept pace with her career; She was a gregarious youngster...friendly, open, direct, and humorous.
Mauresmo got off to a fast start in 1998; Ranked No. 65, she qualified for the German Open and beat No. 2 ranked Lindsay Davenport and No. 3 ranked Jana Novotna to get to the finals. In July, her former hero, Yannick Noah, picked her for France's international Fed Cup squad. Soon after, she met Bourdon, and her life changed forever.

So far, Mauresmo doesn't appear to regret her choices. "I feel good with my relationship and how my life is going," she told a journalist in late April. "I have nothing to be ashamed about and nothing to hide. I decided to be open with this at the beginning because I did not want to live my life worrying about anything. For once, I think I am going in the right direction. I believe I can beat the best players in the world because I have already done it. The more I win, the more confidence I get, the more chance I will have to be No. 1.

"There's every chance that Mauresmo will be a regular in the top ten," agrees Eugene Scott, editor of TENNIS WEEK. "Her power and style of play are representative of the way women's tennis is going."

People close to Mauresmo are confident she will emerge a stronger person as well as a stronger player. For a young woman, she is remarkably poised. She is also intelligent and, unlike many young players on the tour, actually reads books. Her author of choice is the Austrian Jewish poet, biographer, translator, and novelist, Stefan Zweig, who was influenced by Freud's theories. Zweig's "La Confusion des Sentiments"("The Confusion of Feelings") is her favorite. Her most appealing characteristic is still her frankness. She loves tennis and she loves her rapport with the crowd, she says. She wants to progress, to get to the top. But tennis is not everything. A normal life, surrounded by her friends and doing other things, is important to her. "I need to break the tennis routine from time to time," she says. "If I didn't, I would blow a fuse."

Billie Jean King praises Mauresmo for something more than her bravery in coming out. "She's comfortable in her own skin, which is very important," says King. This is perhaps one of the most striking aspects of the whole affair. Mauresmo represents a section of her generation that is both confident and unapologetic about its sexual preferences. There is a refreshing candor and joy about the way in which she came out that contrasts with the anguished, veiled, and ambivalent revelations of the past. In January, she responded to a question about whether her decision to come out might serve as an example for other gay players on the tour; "Perhaps. I hope so for them because right now they are the ones who are having a hard time dealing with their situation. I feel sorry for them."

The Mauresmo story, of course, raises a question about the broader implications of her actions. How might an American athlete of her stature be received upon coming out?

Catherine Stimpson, dean of New York University's Graduate School of Arts & Science and a cultural critic, doubts the reception in the United States would be as positive. "It's wonderful that her French sponsors have stood behind her and that new companies have signed her on," says Stimpson.

"But imagine if Mauresmo were from, say, Phoenix, Arizona. Would BellSouth be running to her and offering her a sponsorship? Would she be on the Wheaties box?"

Maybe not. One thing is certain, though. Mauresmo has irrevocably altered the landscape. It is hard the predict what the reaction will be when the next gay athlete comes out. But, as the Kournikova flyers, and now the Nike billboard at the French Open suggest, sex sells.