The number one tennis player in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, considered it “unfair” that the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) allows transgender women to participate in its tournaments, even though they are practically absent from the world elite.
Invited on Tuesday night (9) to British presenter Piers Morgan’s program, the Belarusian was asked if she shared the opinion of former world number one, Martina Navratilova, who opposes the participation of transgender women in WTA tournaments.
“It’s a delicate issue. I have nothing against them, but I still think they have a big advantage over women who haven’t gone through gender transition,” he explained.
“It just seems unfair to me for a woman to face players who are biologically male,” she added.
“A woman works her whole life to overcome her limits and, suddenly, she has to face a man, someone biologically much stronger. I don’t agree with this kind of thing in sport”, concluded the world number one.
Sabalenka will face Australian Nick Kyrgios on December 28, in Dubai, in a repeat of the “battle of the sexes”, first starred by Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, in 1973.
The participation of transgender women in WTA tournaments is permitted, under conditions, by the entity responsible for regulating the women’s circuit.
Among the eligibility criteria established by the WTA, transgender women who wish to compete in a tournament in this category must demonstrate that the testosterone concentration in their blood has remained below 2.5 nanomoles per liter during the last two years.
They must also send the WTA a signed declaration proving their female or non-binary gender identity.
In practice, no transgender woman currently occupies the top positions on the WTA circuit.
American Renée Richards, born Richard Raskind in 1934, is one of the few transgender tennis players to have competed at the highest level.
After competing in the US Open several times in the men’s category in the 1950s, she had a second career on the women’s circuit between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the following.
After her sporting retirement in 1981, Richards coached, among others, Martina Navratilova.
