WTA Introduces Gene Testing for All Players on Women’s Tennis Tour
The new rule replaces the WTA's prior testosterone standard as several sports federations adopt similar sex-screening tests.
- On Sunday, the WTA announced a new eligibility policy requiring tennis players to clear a one-time SRY gene test to compete, with the requirement taking effect on Tuesday.
- Previously, the WTA permitted transgender women to participate if they declared their gender as female and maintained lowered testosterone levels for two years before competing.
- Other sports federations, including World Athletics and World Boxing, have introduced similar gene tests; in March, the International Olympic Committee ruled only biological female athletes are eligible for Olympic Games events.
- Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, and world number one Aryna Sabalenka support restricting transgender inclusion, while Billie Jean King argues exclusion amounts to discrimination, citing the 1973 "battle of the sexes."
- Critics of transgender inclusion argue that male puberty provides a musculo-skeletal advantage transition cannot mitigate, while transgender advocacy groups maintain that excluding these athletes constitutes discrimination.
128 Articles
128 Articles
Tennis Becomes the First Major Women's Sport to Require Genetic Testing as Rights Advocates and Scientists Sound Alarm
The WTA began mandatory SRY gene testing for all players in July 2026, becoming the first major women's sports league to require genetic testing. Experts warn the policy could harm intersex women.
Tennis is the first major women’s sports league to require genetic testing
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has taken a step beyond most other women’s sports leagues by requiring genetic sex testing for female athletes. Despite being targeted at transgender women, this policy has the greatest potential to impact intersex cisgender women — especially because many of them don’t know they are intersex. There are no known trans women playing on the WTA Tour. But there are plenty of cis women who will now have to go thr…
The WTA has made the choice to exclude transgender athletes from its female tennis competitions. The body has changed its provisions on this issue by updating a text during this month of July 2026....
By introducing from Tuesday a unique mandatory genetic test for all players, the women's tennis body is based on the IOC directive, itself modelled on a Trump decree, which made it a condition for participating in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
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