Wine maker and entrepreneur: What Amelie Mauresmo did next

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Amelie Mauresmo is still immersed in world of tennis four years after retirement

Frenchwoman won two grand slam titles in a 15-year professional career

She now is France's Fed Cup captain and is a tournament director in Paris

Mauresmo hopes to have second life away from tennis, indulging her passion for wine

CNN  — 

Amelie Mauresmo wants a second life – one away from tennis.

After calling time on an illustrious playing career with two grand slams safely tucked away, the Frenchwoman is arguably just as entrenched in the game as she ever was.

Mauresmo is currently juggling roles as tournament director in Paris and captain of France’s Fed Cup team, alongside coaching and commentating stints.

But the 34-year knows there will come a time when she walks away from the court once and for all, hopefully in the direction of her own vineyard.

“To be lucky enough to have lived one passion – tennis – is great but to learn many things and meet new people in a completely different area, atmosphere and world, why not?” she tells CNN’s Open Court show.

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Grand slam champ's new venture
03:46 - Source: CNN

“I have a high passion that is wine; I am a wine lover, I have a big wine cellar.

“I read a lot of things about wine from around the world and different regions in France. I check sometimes with friends of mine about the wine chateaus that are for sale.”

A world away from the tranquil vines associated with France’s verdant valleys is the slog of the professional tennis circuit – Mauresmo’s home for well over a decade.

As well as clinching those two major championships in 2006 – the Australian Open and Wimbledon crowns – she attained the coveted world No. 1 spot on several occasions and won a silver medal the 2004 Olympics.

But when injuries began to mount in 2009 and Mauresmo took the decision to quit the court, a whole new world presented itself to her.

“It was the pressure,” she explains. “The pressure that came out of my shoulders was huge. I was finally able to live a normal life, let’s say, to enjoy the things that I could not enjoy before.

“I also felt that I achieved as a tennis player everything that I could have done, so I think it made it quite easy for me to take the step out of it and to do other things.

“Honestly I was scared. (I thought) ‘What am I going to do? Is it going to be exciting enough? How exactly is it going to be?’

“You are going into something and you have no clue what it is … and I am really happy, I don’t regret anything.”

Fast forward five years and Mauresmo is still intrinsically linked with tennis.

In 2011 she was named tournament director of the GDF Suez Open in Paris, a competition she won three times as a player, before accepting the role of captain of France’s national women’s team in July 2012.

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Mauresmo has a special place in her heart for the Fed Cup – the female equivalent of the Davis Cup – having won it in 2003, triumphing in all eight of her singles rubbers.

Alize Cornet, one of those involved in France’s Group II win over Switzerland last month, says Mauresmo is the best captain she has ever played for.

She has also had success in her short coaching career, helping propel Marion Bartoli to the 2013 Wimbledon title before her compatriot’s shock decision to quit the sport.

With 25 career singles titles to her name, and over $15 million accrued in prize money, Mauresmo’s name was, and still is, indelibly marked into the fabric of the women’s game.

“Tennis was all my life for 20 years,” she says.

“I owe so much to tennis as a person also because I really grew up and learned many things, I was talking earlier about the relationships with people and the strong connections that you get.

“I love that also to go on this journey but not alone – really having people next to me, beside me, guiding me, learning from them, listening to them and giving them some things – the exchange and the connection you have is quite interesting.

“And on the sports side you develop the competitiveness that you have inside of you, you really let it out. It’s an obsessive thing to be a professional athlete, it’s something you think about all the time.

“It’s everything you do, how you eat, how you sleep, what time you go to bed, the activities you do outside. It’s all related with your tennis and it’s something that is really taking all your life, and I also enjoyed it.

“It was a relief when it stopped but throughout your career it was really fulfilling you, and it’s quite interesting.”

Given the knowledge and experience she has, tennis will miss Mauresmo when she departs. And when she does, what memory from her playing days will she treasure most?

“Wimbledon in 2006,” she replies, recalling a final in which she rallied from a set down to beat Justine Henin – who had denied her Olympic gold in Athens – and become the first Frenchwoman to win the prestigious title since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925.

“It was really the emotion, the exhilaration the relief, being so proud of what I did,” Mauresmo adds.

“It was a feeling you really keep in yourself, you are not thinking about it every day in your life but it’s something that belongs to you and you cherish.

“Getting a medal in the Olympics is huge, winning the Fed Cup for my country, being number one in the world also is an amazing achievement, all those things but yes I would put Wimbledon on top.”

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