tennis and homosexuality

Also, a lot of the income of a tennis player comes through sponsorship, perhaps male tennis players think being out and gay would hurt them with that.

When Martina Navratilova came out in the 80s I think she lost a great deal of sponsorship - however Amelie Mauresmo (the only out top female player now) doesn't seem to have been affected in the same way, from what I can see she's still a national heroine in France despite her propensity for choking. I don't think it affected Jana Novotna or Conchita Martinez either although neither officially came out. But I think any male player who came out would definitely suffer loss of sponsorship, especially with the sport's financial base still being in America.

I'm not so sure. For a start, women are incredibly sexualised in tennis, to the point where a mediocre player like Kournikova can become hugely famous. For women, then, tennis can and does become a conduit for stereotypical heterosexual femininity. The "sporty women = lesbians" perception is more for team sports than tennis, isn't it?

And I'm not sure about top male tennis players still in the closet in this day and age. Really? Who are they? I've got no partcular answer to the thread question, but I think the gay disparity between the genders in international tennis is real.

As for the proportion of gay male tennis players - there is not one out male player in the top 100 (or as far as I know among the whole 1000+ ranked players). Hundreds of players play on the ATP Tour each year, and none have come out. It's statistically massively unlikely that none of them have been gay! I do have some vague suspicions but it would be kind of inappropriate to air them in a public forum...

I know that one of the Spanish contingent in the top 100 is gay, because a friend who works in the tennis industry told me. But he wouldn't tell me who! I hope it's Robredo.

-- RTF (rt...), January 27th, 2006.

There's only only one thing better than a hot hetereosexual female tennis player.

That's a hot lesbian tennis player.

*leers suggestively*

I bagsy Hrbaty Boy for Roland Garros

Also this:

The Kournikova hype only ever started because she was a talented junior

is stretching it. There are LOTS of talented juniors who aren't hot who no one ever hears about. Also, no matter how you dice it Kournikova was mediocre. I think she made one major semi, one major quarter, 0 WTF titles, 2 ITF titles. She beat some good players, ok. There's no one else that I can think of with similar numbers who is any where near Kourn's level of fame. Also, doesn't she make out with girls?

Lots of Kournikova's stats are a product of the multi-tiered WTA tournament system whereby players like Anna Smashnova, Flavia Pennetta and Henrieta Nagyova have multiple tournament titles (though none ever made the top 10) while Kournikova, a legitimate top 10 player at her best, never won any because she got so good so quickly that she played virtually no lower-tier tournaments at the start of her career. (And when she played them at the end of it, her game was pretty much wrecked by her mental issues and near constant injuries.) The problem was that her career trajectory was hyped to end in her winning Slams, whereas (injuries notwithstanding) she'd just have been someone who hovered between 5 and 20 in the rankings.

Alma - there are several aspects to tennis which make it a pretty good fit with cultural expectations of homosexuality - the individualism for one thing.

This is a gigantic amount of horseshit that overprivileges singles titles when compared to doubles titles (Kournikova won... 4? 5? Grand Slam doubles titles, which you can't do if you are "mediocre"). I used to trumpet this same line until I found out about he doubles success.

My main bone of contention remains that she kind of looks like a not-that-hot chipmunk.

xp!!!

"In women's tennis, I always root against the heterosexual"

... one of them is Kournikova but who is the other one?

(nb: i feel this way on all sports threads)

You're right, she was an excellent doubles player.

Serena Williams
Sania Mirza
Ai Sugiyama

Also I find Svetlana Kuznetzova very, very attractive although she is not "hot". Myskina looks even more like a chipmunk than Kournikova.

apparently Martina Navratilova's wife is a Real Housewife of Miami

great thread revive

lex used the term "games mistress" upthread, can anybody explain what that is

kinda question whether she was a real housewife, but whatevs

to keep it on topic some idiot on the radio is talking about Andy Murray's "remarkable cum".
I had a free bet to use yesterday and the live betting on Murray was up when he was 2 sets down and 25/1. Nine times out of 10 that is what I'd have used my free bet on but instead I put it on a 33/1 shot that was still finishing the race while the winner was weighing in. Kicking myself.

x-post

Games mistress is simply a teacher/member of staff in a school (often traditional “all girls” school) who supervises games and PE.