Martina Navratilova rallied behind Aryna Sabalenka after the latter received criticism for sharing her stance over the WTA’s new genetic sex testing. The test requires all WTA players to provide a cheek swab, blood, or saliva sample to test for the presence of the SRY gene, which is located on the Y chromosome and is responsible for the development of male characteristics.
This is a one-time test, and only a negative result will make the players eligible to compete on the Tour. In the press conference ahead of her National Bank Open run, when asked about her view on the topic, Aryna Sabalenka stated that it isn’t fair for the women players to compete against a biological male. She praised the WTA’s new decision and stated that she is ready to take the test.
Thanks for the submission!
“I think it’s really important to keep the fairness in our tour. It’s obviously, biologically, the men are way stronger than women, so I feel like it would be not really fair for the woman to compete against biological man. I believe it took them a little while to make this decision and, yeah, I support it. But for me, I’m focusing on myself, on my goals, you know, whatever it takes. If they want to test us all, I’m happy to do that, it’s pretty fair, and let’s keep it that way.”
Following Sabalenka’s statement, a news publication, SportBible remarked her statements as “controversial” and wrote:
“Aryna Sabalenka gives controversial take on WTA transgender policy before US Open.”
However, Navratilova slammed the publication and said that the World No.1’s view was inoffensive.
“There is nothing controversial about Aryna’s take on the WTA policy at all. Also- it is not a transgender policy- it’s a sex test for the SRY gene . Period,” Navratilova wrote.
Navratilova also praised WTA’s decision, stating it was in the right direction.
Aryna Sabalenka sheds her view on multiple withdrawals
at the Canadian Open
In the Canadian Open press conference, Aryna Sabalenka was asked what could be the reason for multiple players withdrawing from the Canadian Open. The World No.1 stated that the schedule is very demanding and the players who have deep runs at the Wimbledon Championships have too little time to rest. She further joked that because she made an early-round exit at the grass-court Grand Slam this year, she was fresh enough to compete in Canada.
“It’s very tricky scheduling lots of tournaments, two-week tournaments. If you go far at the grass swing, like you kind of don’t have much time to reset, recharge, and go back on court to practice and then play the tournament; you don’t have much time for that. So kind of like skipping the vacation time, which is really needed after that big part of the season, so it’s tricky to schedule.”
“If you go far in the grass court, you feel really fatigued and, like, you’re not able to pull out any good tennis, so what’s the reason of coming when your body is really under so much stress, not enough time for recovery, you kind of force your body too much, and then it can cause you an injury, so it’s very tricky. But this year I didn’t do well, so I’m here.”
Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and Carlos Alcaraz announced their withdrawals from the Canadian Open.
Edited by Janhavi Shinde