World No.80 Johanna Larsson has spoken publicly about being gay in tennis for the first time during an interview on Swedish TV programme Regnbågshjältar (Rainbow heroes).
The 29-year-old, who has one WTA title to her name so far, revealed that she was late realising her own sexuaility due to her focus on tennis. Larsson is currently one out of only two players from her country ranked in the world’s top 400. So far this season, her best result was winning the ITF $100,000 Contrexeville Open in France.
“I was pretty late with everything. I had such an incredible focus on tennis that everything about love, emotions or something that could distract me from the sport was set aside.” She explained.
In recent years Larsson hid her personal life from those close to her. For two years she didn’t tell her mother that she was in a same-sex relationship and once denied it when she was asked. One of her reasons for keeping it a secret was the fear of losing any sponsors, despite her native country being one of the most liberal countries in the world. Same sex sexual activity has been legal in Sweden since 1944, 23 years before it was in England and Wales.
“My first relationship I kept secret for two years before it became untenable,” she explained.
“It was terrible to walk around and lie. I remember that my mom asked me straight if I had met a girl and I denied it.”
She began to come out publicly last year. At the Bastad open she held hands with her girlfriend Amanda Sträng, who is a professional golfer. At the 2016 tournament she reached the semifinals before losing to Katerina Siniakova.
“All of a sudden, Amanda took my hand, then I realized that ‘shit’, if it has not been official earlier, it’s definitely it now.” She recounted.
Larsson is one out of a handful of openly gay players on the women’s tour. Others include Casey Dellacqua and Richel Hogenkamp. In the past, former LGBT grand slam champions include Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Amelie Mauresmo and Conchita Martinez.
In the men’s competition, it is a different situation. There are currently no openly gay players on the ATP Tour. Brian Vahaly, who achieved a ranking best of 64th in 2003, came out after retirement.
