Is homosexuality a taboo in men’s tennis? – here’s everything you need to know about it as Taylor Fritz opens up
Homosexuality seems to be a taboo in men’s tennis and apparently, there are no openly gay players at the top level of the sport. While there have been former male tennis players who have later come out as gay, none from the current crop of top 100 players have done that so far. This has raised concerns among many if the men’s circuit is open enough to encourage gay players to reveal their true identity or do they still treat it as a taboo.
American tennis player Taylor Fritz sparked a fresh debate over this issue in a recent interview. “I’m not sure if there are homosexual tennis players in the top 100. I don’t know. Maybe people think behind closed doors we know or something. Statistically speaking, they should be. Statistically. But not that I know. I think is odd, because I feel like a player would be accepted”, he said. The World No.9 singles player further added: “Myself and my friends, other players on tour wouldn’t have any issues with it, it would be totally normal and I think people would be accepting. Obviously anytime that would be a lot of big news and maybe people just don’t want to be in the spotlight, maybe they don’t want the distraction of getting all the attention and stuff like that.”
Tennis players are often subjected to homophobic slurs by the crowd at various events during the tour. It indeed raises a serious question of the online trolling and slurs are what’s stopping homosexual players from openly coming out as gay.
Frenchman Fabien Reboul was seen kissing a male tennis player earlier this month. He himself had uploaded a picture of it on Instagram and that led to widespread speculations about his sexual preferences. In the picture, Reboul can be seen sharing a kiss with fellow French player Max Broville. The picture raised the question if we finally have LGBTQ+ representation in the ATP circuit.
Despite sharing the picture on social media, neither Reboul nor Broville confirmed the nature of their relationship. However, Reboul did share a sweet message along with the picture: “I did not fall in love with you, your love pushed me to it.” Reboul is an active doubles player on the ATP tour and is currently ranked No. 54 in the doubles rankings while Broville plays on the ITF tour and is currently ranked No. 945 in the ATP singles rankings.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates