Some of the LGBTQ+ players who took to the court at Wimbledon. (Robert Prange/Zhe Ji/Getty)
The 2026 Wimbledon Championship is scheduled to start this month. Interestingly, this tennis tournament has an extensive history of involving LGBTQ+ athletes.
The 139th Wimbledon begins on Monday, June 29th. Here are some LGBTQ+ tennis players who played at Wimbledon.
billie jean king
Billie Jean King is probably the most famous tennis player. She has won a career-record 20 Wimbledon titles, including six in singles, 10 in women’s doubles and four in mixed doubles.
The tennis star has been married to fellow tennis player Larry King for over 20 years. Publicly announced in 1981 Marilyn Burnett, the woman he dated during their marriage, filed a suit for alimony against her. Dr. King refused to go back into the closet and has remained a proud and legendary champion of equality ever since.
She has repeatedly used her voice for the LGBTQ+ community, from criticizing Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Call Me Gay” law to urging people to listen to trans athletes. In 2020, King was one of them. Over 170 current and former athletes in women’s sports She signed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of transgender girls and women who play sports.
Daria Kasatkina
In 2022, Daria Kasatkina came out as a lesbian. In October of the same year, she ranked 8th in the world in women’s singles.
The Russian-born Australian was the highest-ranked openly gay player on the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tour last year. Moreover, Kasatkina’s best performance at Wimbledon was reaching the quarterfinals in 2018.
Kasatkina, who currently plays for Australia, previously said it would be “impossible” for her to return to her home country. She currently splits her time between Spain and Dubai.
Shortly after coming out, she announced her relationship with a figure skater Natalia Zabiako. Zabiako and Kasatkina announced their engagement in June 2025. The two also run a YouTube video blog channel together about their relationship and life on the tennis circuit.
Greetings to Minnen and Alison van Uytbank.
Belgian duo Greet Minnen and Alison van Uytbank made gay history at Wimbledon in 2019. They became the first same-sex couple to compete together in a doubles match at Wimbledon.
The pair met and fell in love when they were teenagers, and van Uytbank revealed their relationship at Wimbledon in 2018, when they kissed after winning a match. “So many people followed us and retweeted this kiss and everything.” Minnen shared About kissing. “For us, it was a really big surprise. We didn’t even know there were photos.”
The two have also played against each other at the World Tennis Association (WTA) Tour’s doubles tournament in Karlsruhe in 2019. In a sweet moment after the match, Minnen and Alison van Uytbank kissed in front of the tennis net.
The two got engaged, but their relationship ended at the end of 2021. Both women are now married to other people.
gottfried von crumm
Gottfried von Kram was a legendary German tennis player who became world number one in 1937 and was runner-up in men’s singles at the Wimbledon Championships for three consecutive years. He lost to Fred Perry in 1935 and 1936, and the following year to American Don Budge. However, he won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 1933 with German-Danish star Hilde Krawinkel.
Homosexuality was illegal in Germany under Article 175 of the Penal Code, so von Kram had to hide his sexuality.
When he was arrested, he admitted that he had been in a relationship for three years with Manasseh Herbst, a Jewish male actor and opera singer in his 20s, even though he was married to Baroness Elisabeth Lisa von Doubeneck at the time.
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, is another openly gay player who has competed on the Wimbledon courts. Furthermore, her nine Wimbledon singles championships are the highest ever.
Navratilova came out as bisexual in a 1981 interview with the New York Daily News, revealing that she had been dating feminist writer Rita Mae Brown. She asked her publisher not to publish the interview until she made it public, but the New York Daily News published it anyway. Navratilova later came out as a lesbian.
However, her views on trans women competing in elite sports categories have been regularly criticized. she claimed that it was A type of “cheating” Several organizations said they were “shocked” to hear from athletes in a bid to allow trans women to participate in women’s sports in 2019.
Mika Brunold
As in many sports, female athletes have significantly more outs than the men’s game. 21-year-old Swiss player Mika Brunold has become the second male tennis player to come out as gay while competing.
At the same time, Brunold became the highest-ranked active male Open League player and demonstrated his talent at Wimbledon qualifying. He achieved a career-high No. 1 in the ATP singles world rankings. 289.
Brunold was born in 2025. Instagram post. “I feel it’s time to open up and share with you all that I’m gay,” he wrote. “I’m sharing this with you to help you take a step forward for yourself, but also because I don’t think it’s talked about enough in the sports world.”
Nadia Podoroska
Argentine tennis star Nadia Podoroska came out publicly in 2022. Podoroska is a regular in the singles draw at Wimbledon and represented Argentina at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The former French Open semi-finalist, who is ranked as high as No. 36 in the world, confirmed her relationship with fellow Argentine tennis player Guillermina Naya. Podoroska’s post, shared on Naya’s 26th birthday, included an image of the couple hugging and kissing, with the caption: “Today I celebrate you from afar, but I feel like you’re by my side every day of my life.”
Her performance at Wimbledon has been strong, reaching the second round in 2021 and 2023. Furthermore, her WTA singles ranking is a career-high No. 36.
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Source: PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news – www.thepinknews.com
