The women's tennis tour would welcome transgender players, its chief executive told AFP on Friday, after Martina Navratilova caused a furore by branding trans athletes as cheats. Steve Simon, CEO of the Women's Tennis Association, said the tour's policy was in line with Olympic standards, which state that male-to-female trans athletes can compete without gender reassignment surgery, subject to a maximum testosterone level.
"The WTA has always been an organisation based on acceptance and providing people equal opportunity," Simon said by phone from the official launch of this year's WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China. "Right now our policies do provide for (transgender players)," he added. "They are not necessarily in line with Martina's position.
"But we respect all the various opinions... she's looking for the topic to be debated further and I think it's a very fair position to be taking." Navratilova, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, was condemned as "transphobic" after she wrote in a newspaper column that letting men who "decide to be female" compete with women is "insane and it's cheating". She later apologised. This week British former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies also voiced opposition to transgender athletes competing in women's sport.