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S AT U R D AY, J U LY 0 8 , 2 0 0 6Tennis History Is Made! Shhhhhhhhh!Tennis player Amelie Mauresmo won her second Grand Slam and firstuntainted victory today at Wimbledon. (Her victory in the Australianthis year was muted by her opponent's withdrawal.) Mauresmo becamethe first French woman to win Wimbledon since 1925. Even moresignificantly, she is only the second player -- male or female -- in tennishistory to win a Slam as an openly gay person. Not that you'd know itwatching the coverage on NBC. Never mind that it was an historicaccomplishment. Never mind it was only the second time IN HISTORYthat it had been done. Never mind that it was an extreme rarity in ANYsport, not just tennis. The player at the summit was out and it wasn'tmentioned once during the entire match. Not once. We don't evenknow who was in Mauresmo's box, watching her compete, except forher coach. Were her parents there? Was that her sister or her girlfriendshe gave a chaste hug to after winning? We don't know. Her opponentJustine Henine-Hardenne had her husband singled out several times.In fact, every player in a finals has their husband or wife, girlfriend orboyfriend, mother or father mentioned on camera. If they're not there,we're told where they are and why. But for Mauresmo, not a word. Shewas alone. She's been alone since she came out. Mocked and publiclybelittled by other players, abandoned by sponsors, Mauresmo hasquietly continued her quest for Grand Slam victory in the last fouryears. The rap on Mauresmo is that she has a fragile mental game andchokes on the big matches. She herself has said how difficult it is tocompete in France where the desire for her to win is so tremendous. At27 years old, she was very much in danger of never winning a Slam,which would have made her coming out slightly less notable. This year,she's won two Slams, cementing her name in history as a top player. "Idon't want anyone to talk about my nerves anymore," she joked afterthe match. How about mentioning the fact that she was strong enoughto come out, take the abuse quietly and with dignity and go aboutimproving her game to the point where she could become a champion?In discussing the pressure on her, how come the pressure of beingopenly gay is never mentioned -- both the positive pressure of anothercommunity (after the French) rooting for you and desperate for you towin and the negative pressure of all the bigots who found her beingopen distasteful and hoped she would lose just because of who shewas? Have her parents supported her or abandoned her sinceNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: Tennis History Is Made! Shhhhhhhhh!http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/07/tennis-history-is-made-...
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