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There was a lot of tension in the air when Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo took to the court for the 1999 Australian Open final. More than the nerves of a Grand Slam final between two teenagers, the tension had more to do with a comment that Hingis reportedly made about Mauresmo in the build-up to the final.
Still only 19, Mauresmo was already a trailblazer in her generation, as she was the first player since Martina Navratilova to openly come out as a lesbian. Mauresmo had revealed the news almost a year before the 1999 Australian Open.
While Mauresmo felt a great sense of relief and received plenty of support following the announcement, the situation experienced a bit of sourness after Hingis' supposed comment came to light. When asked about her thoughts on Mauresmo and her game as compared to when they last played each other, the then 18-year-old Hingis was believed to have called Mauresmo "half a man" as she was accompanied in Melbourne by her girlfriend.
"She's here with her girlfriend. She's half a man," Martina Hingis was reported to have said in German.
Hingis denied the widely reported comment and said she had "nothing to apologize for" as she did not make the jibe in the first place. Mauresmo's 1999 Australian Open campaign was affected by another similar comment by her semi-final opponent Lindsay Davenport, who suggested that she felt she was playing against a man due to Mauresmo's strong frame and powerful groundstrokes.
Davenport did not deny her comments but clarified that she did not mean to offend Mauresmo and that her views were based solely on the French player's game. Mauresmo later revealed that both Hingis and Davenport apologized to her and she chose to move on from the "stupid" situation.
"All that has been happening these past days is a little stupid. Both of them apologized, so I don't want to talk about it anymore," Mauresmo said later.
"It would be better if Martina Hingis reflected a little before speaking" - Amelie Mauresmo's former coach
While Amelie Mauresmo chose not to dig deeper into Martina Hingis' alleged comments, her coach at the time, Christophe Fournerie, criticized the Swiss player. He believed that Lindsay Davenport made an honest effort to apologize for her comment as she truly felt it had been taken out of context, but highlighted that Hingis' views on his pupil were offensive and unacceptable.
Fournerie advised Hingis to reflect before speaking, stressing that she had a responsibility as a top-level athlete.
"She said that Amelie was half a man because she lived with a woman, and that's not acceptable," Fournerie said on the matter.
"It would be better if she reflected a little before speaking. Maybe it's because she's still very young but, after all, she's got certain responsibilities given the position she holds in the world of tennis," he added.
Martina Hingis defeated Amelie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-3 in the 1999 Australian Open final to win her fifth Grand Slam singles title.
