Aryna Sabalenka has weighed into the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport, the world No 1 saying it would be unfair for women to face “biological men” in professional tennis.
The Women’s Tennis Association’s gender participation policy of its tour permits transgender women to participate if they have declared their gender as female for a minimum of four years, have lowered testosterone levels and agree to testing procedures. These conditions may be further varied by the WTA medical manager on a case-by-case basis.
Asked about transgender athletes in an interview with Piers Morgan released on Tuesday, the four-time grand slam title winner said: “That’s a tricky question. I have nothing to do against them. But I feel like they still got a huge advantage over the women and I think it’s not fair on women to face basically biological men.”
The Belarusian, who was on the show to promote her Battle of the Sexes clash with Nick Kyrgios on 28 December, said: “It’s not fair. The woman has been working her whole life to reach her limit and then she has to face a man, who is biologically much stronger, so for me I don’t agree with this kind of stuff in sport.”
The WTA has yet to respond to Sabalenka’s comments.
Kyrgios said he agreed with Sabalenka, the Australian adding: “I think she hit the nail on the head.”
In 2024 Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association updated its rules to bar transgender women from competing in national and inter‑club female competitions. In the past two years, several sports federations have launched their own studies or changed rules to ban anyone who has gone through male puberty from competing in the female category at an elite level.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz has completed a partnership deal with the WTA that will see the German car brand invest $50m (£37.5m) per year into women’s tennis for up to 10 years. The deal is set to be worth up to half a billion dollars (£375m) and would be one of the biggest of its kind in women’s sport.