Coco Gauff became the most prominent American player to address the WTA’s new genetic sex-testing policy on Wednesday, offering a more complicated answer than the world No. 1 gave earlier in the week and steering the debate toward how the tour communicated the change to its own players.
Speaking in Toronto after her opening win at the Canadian Open, Gauff said she understood the reasoning behind the policy and agreed with the aim of protecting fairness in women’s sport. She also said the surrounding conversation had created “a lot of animosity towards the trans community,” and drew a sharp line between the rule itself and the people she believes are using it as cover. Some of those weighing in, she said, do not care about the sport and are looking for a reason to attack transgender people. She described the question as one that demanded a nuanced answer rather than a slogan.
The world No. 4 also raised a process objection that no other leading player has voiced publicly. She said the change could have been handled more transparently with the playing group, and indicated that several players she had spoken to did not learn of the policy until it was announced. The tour has not responded publicly to that criticism.
The policy, introduced in July, requires every player on tour to undergo a one-time screening for the SRY gene, a stretch of DNA carried on the Y chromosome that is involved in male-typical sex development. Under the new framework the tour defines biological sex by the presence or absence of that gene, and separates it from gender identity. The WTA has said the rule is intended to preserve the integrity of women’s professional tennis and maintain fair competition conditions. Exceptions exist for athletes with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome or another disorder of gonadal development, where testosterone has no effect on the body.
It replaces a framework that allowed transgender women and players who identify as non-binary to compete provided they met a threshold for the concentration of testosterone in the blood. There are no known transgender women currently competing on the WTA Tour, a point that has shaped criticism of the policy as a solution in search of a problem.
Gauff’s remarks land in a week when the tour’s biggest names have been asked the same question in succession and have given noticeably different answers. Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1, endorsed the policy in Toronto with a brief argument from physical difference, saying it would not be fair for women to compete against biological men. Elena Rybakina, the world No. 2, was more resigned than enthusiastic, saying the players would take the test if it were required but that the tour had functioned without it.
The spread matters because the tour has framed the change as a position taken on behalf of the locker room, and because Gauff is the closest thing women’s tennis has to a mainstream American star. She is a two-time major champion, the most marketable player in the sport in the United States, and consistently one of the few players willing to answer a political question rather than deflect it. Her answer will travel further than most.
The timing sharpens it further. The North American hard-court swing carries the tour into the US Open, where interest in women’s tennis peaks in its largest market and where every leading player will face a fortnight of daily news conferences. Nothing about the policy is due to change before then, which means the questions will follow the field to New York.
Gauff opened her Toronto campaign with a 6-2, 7-5 win over fellow American Kayla Day and next faces Maria Sakkari of Greece on Friday. Rybakina, who is chasing the No. 1 ranking this fortnight, is drawn in the same half.
Whether the WTA answers the transparency complaint is now the open question. The rule itself is in force and has drawn support from the top of the rankings. The manner of its introduction, and the tour’s handling of the players it affects, is the part still unresolved, and the part Gauff has put on the record.
