Gauff splits the difference on a fraught topic
Coco Gauff picked her words carefully in Toronto this week. Speaking after her second-round win over Kayla Day at the National Bank Open on Wednesday, the 22-year-old said she supports the principle behind mandatory gene testing while warning about how the policy could be used.
The measure approved for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics requires all tennis players to be screened for the SRY gene, a marker tied to sex determination. Gender-based screening is already standard in several Olympic sports, including track and field, boxing and some winter disciplines, so tennis is joining an existing framework rather than inventing one.
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Fairness versus fallout
“So, yes, I guess I kind of agree with trying to protect the fairness in women’s sports,” Gauff said. Her worry sat in the next breath. “But I also do not like the attack that it is creating. People who don’t really care, but just want to use this as a reason to attack the trans community. So I’m not really a big fan of that either.”
The debate has spread across women’s sport in recent weeks. Multiple WNBA players have fielded questions on the subject, and Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham drew both support and protests after saying she wanted to “protect young girls in the locker room.” Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve pushed back on the framing, rejecting the idea that transgender women are “predators of some kind in the locker room.”
A conversation tennis cannot avoid
Gauff, a Grand Slam champion and one of the sport’s most visible voices, now sits near the center of a discussion that runs well beyond the baseline. With the Los Angeles Games two years out, the testing rule gives players time to weigh in, and Gauff made clear she wants the conversation handled with more care than it has drawn so far.
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