Unmixed doubles ... Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova sit in the Royal Box on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in July. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

BBC News reported that the pair married in a ceremony in New York.

“I’m 58 years old I got married for the first time,” the BBC quoted Navratilova as saying. “It’s about time, right? Growing up as a gay woman you just don’t ever think about that.”

Navratilova made a public proposal to the Russian-born Lemigova during the US Open in early September.

“We’ve been together six years and I can’t imagine my life without you. Please marry me,” she said after the first men’s semi-final match.

The moment was broadcast throughout the stadium.

“By proposing and marrying in such a public way, I think — I hope — will give an inspiration to the families set up like ours, that they, too, can be married legally one day,” Lemigova told BBC.

The couple live in Coconut Grove in Florida, a county that does not recognise same-sex marriage.

High-profile couple ... Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova at a red carpet event in Miami Beach on December 3. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for IWC Source: Getty Images

Fifty-eight-year-old Navratilova has a famously rocky history when it comes to matters of the heart.

She has been sued twice by former long-term girlfriends — once in 1991 and again in 2009. Both matters were settled out of court.

Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Navratilova won a total of 18 grand slam titles during her playing career and has been recognised as one of the game’s greatest players of all time.

Lemigova, a 42-year-old mother of two, was the last woman to represent the former Miss Universe beauty pageant in 1991. She was a runner-up in that year’s competition.