Is Mauresmo's sexual orientation hurting her sponsorship opps?

"I've never been asked that question so often as this past week," said Micky Lawler, head of women's tennis at Octagon, an international sports management firm that has represented Mauresmo since she was 14.

"Here in the U.S., the angle is always she's a homosexual. … This is the only country where that happens.

"I don't know why this is so front and center here," said Lawler, who grew up in Holland and has lived in the States for several years. "Maybe it's because Americans are more open and able to ask the question, or maybe it's because people here are just more conservative. I don't know."

"There won't be any pushback on my end because she's a lesbian," said one broadcast sports marketing executive who asked not to be named because he had not received clearance to speak on behalf of his company.

"Tennis is a very gender-neutral sport that reaches upscale adults 25 to 54," he said. "In that demographic, the issue of sexual orientation becomes less relevant." ABC News

My first thoughts on this are that Mauresmo being gay has not drastically affected her sponsorships recently - I didn't see Lindsay Davenport raking in the bucks last year when she was #1. That said, I would guess it may have impacted her early career, and some of that may certainly have carried over.

By far, I think sponsorships are going to the tennis hotties on the women's side - no, not all of them - but enough to edge out good players like Davenport and Mauresmo. On the men's side, it seems to be more weighted toward ability. Since neither Davenport nor Mauresmo nor Henin fall into the "hot young girl" category, they don't get the same marketshare.

Another problem for Mauresmo is that the image of her as someone who caves to nerves is just not going away. It is no fault of hers - the thought seems to have stuck, and every time that she makes a mistake, it gets chalked up to her reverting to past behavior. She should just ignore the media at this point - if she isn't already.