Former Wimbledon winner’s ex-partner jailed for harassment campaign against her
Former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo has won a legal battle against her ex-partner, who has been found guilty of harassing her.
Mauresmo, who is tournament director of the French Open and won Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2006, filed a complaint against ex-wife Marie-Benedicte Hurel in June.
The 44-year-old alleged that she had faced a campaign of blackmail and harassment, including via text messages. Hurel, 60, denied the allegations during the trial, but after being found guilty by a Bayonne court she will now face four months in prison. She has also been ordered to pay €1 in damages.
She was cleared of harassment charges against a second woman, Mauresmo’s current partner.
As well as the four-month jail sentence Hurel has been banned from contacting Mauresmo for two years or going near her or her current partner’s home.
Her legal team has 10 days to lodge an appeal against the verdict. Mauresmo’s lawyers had pushed for a 10-month suspended prison sentence for Hurel.
The pair, who began a relationship in 2014, were married in 2021. Mauresmo filed for divorce last year and lodged the harassment suit shortly after opening divorce proceedings. She has publicly spoken about “going through hell” since the relationship broke down and alleged that Hurel sent a stream of insulting text messages to her, which took an extreme mental toll on the former world number one.
The 2004 Olympic silver medallist was prescribed a total incapacity for work (ITT) certificate for ten days as a result of the strain caused by the divorce and harassment case. She did not attend the trial decision.
Mauresmo burst onto the tennis scene in 1999, where despite not being seeded she achieved a run to the Australian Open final. The Frenchwoman won 25 titles over her professional career including the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006.
She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016 and broke barriers throughout her career, becoming one of the first high-profile tennis players to come out as lesbian, which she did in 1999. She also held the title of world number one for 39 weeks and was a pioneer of French tennis.
Since retiring in 2009 Mauresmo has coached Andy Murray – becoming the first woman to coach a major male player – and led fellow Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli to success at Wimbledon 2013, when she won the title without dropping a set.
She also captains France’s Billie Jean King Cup team and became the first female tournament director of her home Grand Slam, Roland Garros, in 2022.
By Flo Clifford
