Hingis says Mauresmo `half man' The Associated Press M ELBOURNE,

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Feb 1, 1999

The tension 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. "At last, I'm clear in my head, clear in my mind, clear in my life, and it shows in my tennis," Mauresmo said 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 Fed Cup. "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 semifinal loss to Mauresmo. While Hingis denied the "half a man" comment, Davenport angrily insisted the next day that she was referring only to Mauresmo's muscular play, especially the way she slugged one-handed topspin backhands unlike other women. After the final, Hingis said she had "nothing to apologize for," and refused to talk about the issue. Mauresmo sought to brush aside the situation, saying that "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." But Mauresmo's coach, Christophe Fournerie, insisted there was much more to it than that. "I'd like to make a distinction between Davenport, who not only apologized but also wrote a personal note to Amelie, and Hingis' behavior, which was disappointing," Fournerie said. "In fact, she (Hingis) said that Amelie was half a man because she lived with a woman, and that's not acceptable. It would be better if she reflected a little before speaking."