The Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA) is to require all gamers to bear genetic intercourse testing with a view to compete on the WTA Tour.
Within the newest version of its girls’s eligibility coverage, which can come into impact on Tuesday, gamers will probably be required to offer a cheek swab, blood or saliva pattern to check for the presence of the SRY gene which is a part of the Y chromosome and causes male traits to develop.
Gamers will probably be examined simply as soon as of their lifetime and solely a unfavourable outcome, exhibiting no presence of the gene, will allow them to compete on the Tour.
In the event that they take a look at constructive, gamers will face additional medical evaluation earlier than being allowed to play.
The brand new coverage additionally requires gamers to signal a doc that states they may face disciplinary motion in the event that they refuse testing.
The WTA’s earlier coverage, final up to date in 2024, allowed transgender girls to compete on the Tour if that they had lowered their testosterone ranges to under 2.5 nmol/L repeatedly for the earlier two years.
There aren’t any recognized transgender girls at the moment enjoying on the WTA Tour.
“The WTA’s girls’s eligibility coverage is designed to advertise equal athletic alternatives in girls’s skilled tennis and preserve truthful competitors for all gamers taking part in WTA tournaments,” the governing physique stated.
“Since first being launched in 1975, the eligibility coverage has undergone periodic evaluation in mild of developments throughout worldwide sport.
“Following the latest evaluation, which included session with WTA members and evolving requirements throughout girls’s sport, the WTA board accredited an up to date WTA girls’s eligibility coverage starting in 2026 based mostly on organic intercourse.”
It added: “The WTA recognises that this can be a delicate and complicated concern and is dedicated to treating all gamers with dignity and implementing the coverage in a respectful and considerate method.”
The coverage change comes a yr after World Athletics introduced new rules – introduced into impact in September 2025 – requiring athletes desirous to compete within the feminine class for world rating competitions to take a one-time gene take a look at.
World Boxing additionally accredited the usage of the SRY take a look at in Might 2025 when it launched obligatory intercourse testing for all athletes desirous to compete within the girls’s class.
