MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo shook hands frostily at the end of their Australian Open final, barely looking at each other and skipping the traditional peck on each cheek.
The tension between them had nothing to do with the way Hingis won her third straight Australian title Saturday, 6-2, 6-3, or the way Mauresmo fought back at the end before yielding on the seventh match point.Rather, it was about a comment Hingis was reported to have made -- and which she denied -- about the 19-year-old Mauresmo's openly lesbian relationship over the past year with another Frenchwoman.
Mauresmo is the first player on the women's tour since Martina Navratilova to talk publicly about being a lesbian. She said she moved to Saint Tropez last year to live with girlfriend Sylvie Bourdon, 31, who cheered her from the players' box at the Australian Open this week.
"At last, I'm clear in my head, clear in my mind, clear in my life, and it shows in my tennis," Mauresmo said in speaking of her decision to be open about her life with Bourdon.
Hingis was asked after the semifinals about the difference between Mauresmo now and when they played last year in a Federation Cup match.
"She's here with her girlfriend. She's half a man," Hingis was reported to have said in German.
On the same day, Lindsay Davenport said she thought at times she was playing against a man in her loss to Mauresmo.