Which is just as well, for that’s what the 39-year-old Frenchwoman is aiming to do on Sunday when she takes on the 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon with the explicit aim of beating her personal best of 3 hours 16 minutes, set at the Paris Marathon in 2012.

As if that wasn’t enough of a focus for one day, Mauresmo will first complete another important task when she pushes a big red button to start the elite women’s and para championship races, a role she described today as a huge honour.

“The organisation asked me a few weeks ago to start the women’s race and the para athletes, and I said ‘Yes’ straight away,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity and a great honour to do it.

“It will take my mind away from my own race so I’m happy to have the distraction.”

It’s also a fitting one, for she will immediately hand over official starter duties to a familiar figure – Britain’s Wimbledon-winning superstar Andy Murray, the man she famously coached from 2014 to 2016, guiding him to the Australian Open final in 2015, plus French Open and Wimbledon semi-finals.

Murray will start the elite men’s and mass races, waving some 41,000 people off on their journey from south-east London to The Mall, coach Mauresmo among them.

“I thought, as Andy is doing the men’s race and the mass start, it will be nice to do it together,” she says. “We are in regular contact and I know he was happy to be the starter. I’ll be happy to see him there before I run.”

Mauresmo’s place on the starter’s podium is fitting in another way too, for she follows women’s running pioneer Kathrine Switzer who started the women’s race 12 months ago before completing the marathon herself, aged 71.

Switzer was a pioneer for women’s running, defying the all-male bastion of distance running in 1967 when she became the first woman to enter and officially complete the Boston Marathon.

As the first ever female coach of a top-class male player, Mauresmo also knows a thing or two about being a trailblazer for women in sport, an issue that clearly remains close to heart.

“Andy was incredible to make that decision [to employ me] without thinking about my gender,” she says. “Just to see what he needed at the time and who could do that best for him, regardless of my gender – most people don’t see it that way.

“It is changing in sport. But it will take time for women to have the same opportunities as men, and for people to simply choose who’s best for a job regardless of whether you’re a man or woman.

“Women’s sport has grown very quickly in the last five or 10 years and it will continue, I think. It’s getting there.”

Mauresmo continues to play her part, having recently moved on from coaching the French Federation Cup team to look after compatriot Lucas Pouille, currently ranked world number 30 in the men’s singles.

Somehow, alongside that demanding job and being mother to small toddlers, she finds time to train hard for the marathon, hard enough to target a finish time on Sunday that will place her among Britain’s leading club runners and fast-for-age athletes.

“It was never my goal to take up running but it’s a good way to stay fit and show the kids what’s a good way of life,” she says. “Of course, you don’t need to run a marathon to stay healthy, but for me it helps.

“As a tennis player I was always running quite a lot. It was nothing compared to preparing for a marathon, but I already liked doing it and needed it to feel good on the court, especially in the middle of my career. I was running up to an hour pretty often.”

With that background, it was a relatively small step for Mauresmo to take on the marathon challenge when her career ended in 2009, just three years after winning women’s singles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

In 2010, she completed her first 26-miler in New York and the Paris Marathon followed in 2012. She returned to the Big Apple last November, clocking an impressive 3:27:33 despite deciding to enter just a month before the race.

“After that I said, ‘OK, the next is London’,” she says. “It’s one of the big races and it’s a beautiful city and from what I’ve heard is that it’s an incredible atmosphere throughout the course.

“I wanted to run in this city and try a different course, and feel that atmosphere everyone says is so unbelievable. It’s going to be exciting.

“My best time was seven years ago and I’m trying to beat that. It depends a bit on the weather but hopefully I can do it.

“The marathon is a strange race,” she adds. “At this stage there are lots of questions – How will my body react? What will be in my mind? But it’s an adventure, not a race. I can’t wait.”

Virgin Money London Marathon