Women’s tennis World number one, Aryna Sabalenka, has weighed into the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport, saying it would be unfair for women to face “biological men” in professional tennis.
The WTA Tour Gender Participation Policy currently 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 released on Tuesday, four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka shared a few words.
“That’s a tricky question. I have nothing to do against them,” said the Belarusian. “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.”
“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.”
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.
Transgender advocacy groups say excluding trans athletes amounts to discrimination. Critics of transgender inclusion in women’s sport, say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.