Every player has to be tested. Even the ones nobody ever asked about.
Since 21 July, a ranking and an accepted entry are no longer enough to play a WTA tournament. Every player has to take a genetic test first. A cheek swab, saliva or blood sample is screened for the SRY gene, which sits on the Y chromosome and triggers male sex development before birth.
A negative result clears a player for the rest of her career. A positive one removes her from competition while a medical review runs. Refusing the test can bring disciplinary action.
The rule applies to everyone, including players nobody has ever questioned. There are no known transgender women in professional tennis at any level. The last one competed between 1977 and 1981.
Doctors and human rights groups argue that one gene cannot capture how sex development actually works, and that the people most likely to be caught by it are intersex athletes who may not know their own status.
Martina Navratilova welcomed the policy and said a women’s association should be for women. Billie Jean King calls exclusion of transgender athletes discrimination. World Athletics and World Boxing introduced the same test in 2025, the International Olympic Committee in March.
Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Athletic, WTA