Just hours before the US Open was hampered by a furious storm on Wednesday, rainbow flags and wristbands were visible everywhere at the venue in support of one of the USTA’s initiatives.
For the first time in US Open history, the tournament hosted an Open Pride Day for the LGBT+ community with backers including Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. The event is part of the USTA’s Diversity and Inclusion strategic platform which aims to make tennis more inclusive. Players such as Maximo Gonzalez and Guido Pella wore armbands during their matches in a show of their support. Although the event raised the inevitable question, why are there no openly LGBT players in men’s tennis?
“From my side, I think everybody would be super open if somebody would come out on the ATP Tour,” Daniil Medvedev said following his second round win.
“Are there any gays on the ATP Tour? Until somebody comes out, you cannot know unless you’re his best friend and you know what he goes through.’
“I think it’s great from the US Open, this initiative. I think the ATP honestly is doing a good job, also especially internally trying to provide info and to just make sure that if anybody wants to come out, he’s gonna feel safe and secure.
“All the players would be happy for the guy if he does it.”
Unlike the women’s game, there have been few openly gay players on the ATP Tour historically. Among the handful is former top 100 player Brian Vahaly who came out after retiring from the sport. Earlier this year in an interview with UbiTennis, he recalled hearing various homophobic jokes on the Tour during his time as a player. Vahaly was at the US Open for Open Pride along with his husband and their two children.
Should any player chose to come out, Stefanos Tsitsipas says they would have the backing of the Tour. The Greek was questioned during his press conference if there would be a ‘safe space’ for one of his peers to do such a thing.
“I think so. They would be supported, for sure,” the world No.3 replied.
“I don’t know how it is in other sports. I see no reason, for example, a tour like the ATP not to accept something like this.”
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is a member of the influential ATP Players Council, admits he is a bit baffled why there are no out players on the Tour. So much so that he has chosen to take a closer look into the topic to find out why.
“Recently I’ve started doing a survey inside the ATP about the LGBTQ+ community,” he revelled. “It’s important these days to be aware of that and to be open-minded and the ATP needs to do that, in today’s time it’s needed.
“The reason we don’t have openly gay players on the ATP Tour, I’m not sure of the reason, but I feel me, as a player, it would be very open, very welcome. Statistically, there should be some, but for now there’s not.”
In recent times there has been a bigger push to make tennis more inclusive of the LGBT community through journalist Nick McCarvel’s LBGTennis nights which have been held at various events.
“There is some conservative thinking in the sport – and that’s fine – but the more you can be your authentic self on the court, in the locker room, in the press room, in the hallways of the Grand Slam arenas around the world – that is all very, abundantly important,” McCarvel told UbiTennis last year.
“Tennis is wonderfully gay. This sport touches the queer community like no other! Let’s highlight that. Let’s embrace it and do our (small little) part.”
In November 2020 the International Review for the Sociology of Sport published a study that found athletes developed greater happiness and self-confidence within their sport after coming out. Their findings were based on accounts of 60 different male athletes which were published on outsports.com.
See also: EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION: Does Tennis Have A LGBT Inclusivity Problem?
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