Tennis news 2026: WTA introduces gender testing, Rennae Stubbs comments, reaction

Australian tennis legend Rennae Stubbs has fired up over the Women’s Tennis Association’s controversial decision to mandate sex testing.

The WTA this week updated its eligibility policy to include gender screening “based on biological sex” to “preserve the integrity of women’s professional tennis and maintain fair competition conditions for all players”.

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The policy brings the organisation into line with that of the International Olympic Committee, which announced its own changes in March following US President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of Los Angeles 2028.

There are currently no known transgender athletes playing on the WTA tour. Renee Richards, who played in the 1970s, is the only openly trans person to ever play top-level tennis.

The decision to introduce the testing was praised by legend Martina Navratilova, who ironically was coached by Richards for several years in the early 1980s.

Speaking on her own Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, the 55-year-old questioned why the WTA decided to “throw this spanner in the works” at a time the women’s side of the sport was struggling to attract sponsors, and when viewership numbers outside the slams is declining.

“The WTA is already in all kinds of problems financially, among other things … it makes no sense to me,” she said.

“(Renee Richards) said she doesn’t think that there should be transgender players in the professional realm, but there aren’t any. So why is this a problem?

“And for such a small percentage of people in the world that identify themselves as trans … I don’t see it as a problem.

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“This is my biggest thing ... no man is deciding at 18 or 20 years of age, ‘you know what? I think I can win Wimbledon if I just become a woman. I’m just going to start taking estrogen and do all these things to get myself a Wimbledon title’. It just doesn’t happen.

“So we’re taking away such a small, tiny, minute section of the world to make a point right now? Why? What has happened to make the WTA decide that this is the agenda they want to pick up and run with in the middle of the year?”

In April, the Saudi PIF announced it would end its funding of the WTA Finals following this year’s event in November. Stubbs said the organisation should be more focused on finding a replacement source of sponsorship, or the dwindling TV numbers, rather than engage in a “lightning rod conversation”

“It’s so baffling that they would even do this. Why rock a boat that’s not sinking at this point (when) the thing that might be sinking is the WTA financials in general. Why aren’t you going out and seeking sponsorship deals?

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“(Women’s tennis is) falling behind the WNBA, the PWHL (women’s pro ice hockey league), the NWSL (women’s professional soccer league) … but here we are going after a social conversation that is so stupid.”

Players are to be tested for the SRY gene, a DNA segment found on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development in utero. The test can either be carried out via a saliva swab taken from the cheek, or a blood sample. Players will only need to do the test once in their life.

The screening is already undertaken by governing bodies within track and field, skiing, and boxing. It has been criticised by human rights experts and activist groups.

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Stubbs revealed she’d had to undergo sex testing to be eligible to play in her first Olympics at Atlanta 1996.

“We actually got given a card to basically say: ‘Oh, yeah, you’re a woman, you have the genes of a female, therefore you can participate’,” she said.

“When I did it, I was like, ‘this is weird, seriously?’ I thought it was such an invasion of my own privacy back then.

“Why the WTA needs to venture into this category of controversy is just bizarre to me.”

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