(Sydney) An attack on lesbians in pro tennis prompted Martina Navratilova to launch her own volley on the weekend.

Navratilova labeled notorious tennis dad Damir Dokic "stupid" over comments that he would kill himself if his daughter "became a lesbian."

Dokic, the father of Serbian tennis star Jelena Dokic had gone on a tirade about lesbians in the sport earlier this month in London.

"More than 40 per cent of women in world tennis are lesbians. I couldn't stand it if Jelena turned out to be one of them. I'd kill myself," Dokic declared.

The Women's Lawn Tennis Association refused to disassociate itself from the remarks, saying only it "did not want to get involved."

But, at the opening of a Gold Coast tennis tournament Navratilova questioned how the elder Dokec came by his statistics.

"Does he know a lot about that?" asked the tennis great.

"It's a good thing I'm not his daughter then, maybe it's too bad I'm not."

Then she took a more serious tone.

"That's a pretty stupid comment to make - that his sense of worth as a father is whether your daughter is a lesbian or not," Navratilova said.

"If that's the most important thing to him then I really feel sorry for him."

Navratilova dominated women's tennis in the 1980s, winning 18 Grand Slam singles titles.

After retiring in 1994 she returned in 2000 to play predominantly doubles matches.

At 46, she is the oldest woman playing professional tennis and has teamed up with Russian starlet Svetlana Kuznetsova in the doubles section of the Uncle Toby's competition at Royal Pines.

The only other out professional women's player is France's Amelie Mauresmo.