Gauff Praises Kasatkina For Making 'Really Scary' Decision To Come Out As Gay

Tuesday, 02 August 2022 at 00:45

Updated at Thursday, 12 September 2024 at 20:18

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byJordan Reynolds

Daria Kasatina's decision to come out as gay was supported by Coco Gauff, who praised the Russian for her courage since gay rights are not widely supported in her home country.

The WTA Tour has a history of gay players. For instance, the legendary 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Navratilova has been openly gay for many years.

However, deciding to come out as gay is difficult for many players. Dozens of countries around the world are hostile toward gay people, making many fear the consequences of being open about their sexuality.

Russia is one of those countries, but Kasatkina still decided to announce she is gay. Some players have already publicly supported Kasatkina since taking that decision, which is great to see.

Gauff can be added to the list of supportive players. This year's French Open runner-up said she was really happy for Kasatkina and acknowledged that it must have been scary to do because of Russia's position on the issue.

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“I am super happy for her. I think that would be something really scary to do especially coming from her country which normally isn’t as open as we are in the US about that issue. I’m just really happy for her and I wish her the best. I hope the situation gets better."

The American also believes there is no judgment about sexuality on the WTA Tour, but she also admitted to not being close enough with each player on the tour to know every opinion.

“I think in tennis, at least the girls around her, are all very supportive of each other’s backgrounds and identities, I’m not best friends with everyone, but I don’t think there’s any judgement when it comes to that."

"That’s something really great about tennis because it’s not common when you go into an area where people are from all around the world and you don’t feel judged.”