GOLD COAST, Australia -- Former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova attacked Damir Dokic over the Yugoslav's homophobic comments about lesbian players on tour.

Navratilova, 46, took time out Sunday from her doubles preparations for the Australian Hardcourt Women's Championships to respond to a threat Dokic had made earlier this month that he would commit suicide if his daughter, WTA Tour star Jelena, was a lesbian.

"It's a good thing that I am not his daughter then," Navratilova said. "Maybe it's too bad I'm not."

Dokic also told a Serbian newspaper that he believed more than 40 percent of women on the tour were lesbians.

"That's a pretty stupid comment to make obviously if 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, a winner of 167 singles titles and 56 Grand Slams, is beginning the final year of a three-year comeback campaign in Australia. She last played here on the 1989 Summer circuit but came out of retirement in 2000 to play doubles.

The Australian Hardcourt Women's Championships are a warm-up to next month's Australian Open.

Navratilova became the oldest player to win a WTA Tour title earlier this year in Madrid and wants to add a few more to her 166 doubles victories before quitting for good at the end of the coming year.

Navratilova will partner 17-year-old former world junior champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia at the Hardcourts and at the Australian Open next month.