Lesbian tennis players encounter a variety of obstacles. It can be the societal stigma associated with coming out. Besides, it can have an effect on athletes’ finances because some sponsors would be reluctant to support an athlete who identifies as LGBTQ. However, LGBTQ athletes are more welcome in some nations than others. Generally speaking, athletes from Australia, the United States, and Europe are more open about their sexuality. Below is our list of famous lesbian tennis players.
Lesbian tennis players list
Greet Minnen – 1997
Greet Minnen was born on August 14, 1997. She was born in Turnhout and competed in her final year of junior tennis, reaching the Australian Open’s girls’ doubles final, where she was defeated in two sets.
She gained career-high WTA singles rankings of No. 69 on October 18, 2021, and No. 50 in doubles on June 6, 2022. She won her first career top 10 match by defeating former world number one and Wimbledon winner Garbie Muguruza in the first round of Wimbledon 2022, 6:4–6:0.
Greet and Alison started dating in 2015, and in 2018 they made the decision to come out. It’s interesting to note that they had even faced off against one another in Karlsruhe, where they made news for their passionate embrace at the net following the game.
Alison Van Uytvanck – 1994
Alison Van Uytvanck was born on March 26, 1994 in Belgium. She has won three Challenger Tour singles titles, three singles titles on the WTA Tour, five singles titles, two doubles titles, and 12 singles titles on the ITF Circuit. She attained her highest singles position of No. 37 in the world in August 2018.
Greet Minnen and Alison Van Uytvanck dated for almost five years before getting engaged in December 2020. Less than a year after getting married, the pair announced their separation and stated that they were taking a break from their romance.
Nadia Podoroska – 1997
Podoroska is one of the lesbian tennis players. She was born on February 10, 1997, in Rosario, Santa Fe Province. She was raised in Fisherton, a middle-class suburb built by railroad workers in the late 1880s. She took part in the Summer Olympics in 2020.
Podoroska has won 14 singles championships and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit in addition to one doubles title on the WTA Tour. She peaked at No. 62 in the WTA doubles rankings on October 18, 2021, and attained her best singles ranking of No. 36 on July 12, 2021. Podoroska came out as a lesbian in 2022 and shared photos of herself and her lover, another Argentine tennis star Guillermina Naya, on Instagram.
Tara Moore – 1992
Tennis player Tara Shanice Moore was born in Hong Kong on August 6, 1992. She peaked at No. 145 in the world for singles on May 8, 2017, which is a career-high position.
On the ITF Women’s Circuit, she has won nine singles titles and seventeen doubles titles. Her highest WTA doubles ranking, which she attained on July 11, 2022, was No. 77. Emina Bektas, a fellow professional tennis player, is Tara’s husband. She once shared a committed relationship with Conny Perrin, her former doubles partner.
Casey Dellacqua – 1985
Australian tennis player Casey Dellacqua, who was born on February 11th, 1985, is now a commentator. She also won 22 ITF singles championships. Her best singles results on the WTA Tour have included semifinal appearances at the 2012 Texas Tennis Open and 2014 Birmingham Classic, a quarterfinal finish at the 2014 Indian Wells Masters, and fourth-round appearances at 2008, 2014, and 2014 US Opens.
But all of Dellacqua’s career high points have involved doubles. She has won seven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, 23 on the ITF Tour, and one Grand Slam trophy in mixed doubles at the 2011 French Open. She participated in seven major finals from 2008 to 2017 and advanced to the final of all four Grand Slam women’s doubles tournaments, although she was unable to claim a victory.
Together with Yaroslava Shvedova, Dellacqua achieved her largest women’s doubles victory at the Premier Mandatory 2015 Madrid Open. Dellacqua peaked at No. 26 in the world in the singles rankings in September 2014, and No. 3 in the doubles rankings in February 2016.
Currently, Dellacqua has three kids with her partner Amanda Judd.
Amélie Mauresmo – 1979
Amélie Simone Mauresmo, a former No. 1 tennis player from France and current tournament director, was born on July 5, 1979, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a little town outside of Paris. Mauresmo earned the singles silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the singles title at the 2005 year-end championships, and two major singles titles at the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships.
On December 3, 2009, she ended her 15-year professional tennis career officially by announcing her retirement. The following year, she began working with a number of ATP and WTA athletes, including Andy Murray.
2015 saw Mauresmo become a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was appointed the French Open’s director in 2021. In terms of personal life, Amelie Mauresmo isn’t dating anyone as of 2022.
Martina Navratilova – 1956
Martina Navratilova (born October 18, 1956, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. In 1981, Martina Navratilova is one of the famous lesbian tennis players, she came out as bisexual and revealed that she had a sexual relationship with Rita Mae Brown.
Navratilova was in a committed relationship with Judy Nelson from 1984 until 1991 after meeting her at a match in Fort Worth in 1982. (at the time Nelson was married with two children).
She has worked as a tennis analyst and commentator since she retired. On September 6, 2014, Navratilova proposed to her long-time girlfriend Julia Lemigova, a former Miss USSR, at the US Open. They married in New York on December 15, 2014.
Rennae Stubbs – 1971
On March 26, 1971, Rennae Stubbs OLY, an Australian tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional player, was born. She is the host of The Power Hour on Sports Talk on Amazon Prime Video. Between 2011 and 2018, she served as an analyst for the Seven Network. She is currently a full-time commentator for ESPN tennis and the host of her own podcast, The Rennae Stubbs Tennis podcast. She held a scholarship from the Australian Institute of Sport.
Stubbs won two mixed-doubles titles in addition to four Grand Slam doubles titles. In 2000, she held the No. 1 doubles ranking in the world. She participated in four Olympic Summer Games in a row for Australia: Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008.
Since her retirement, Stubbs has coached a number of players, including Karolina Plková and Samantha Stosur, and served as a TV commentator. He is one of the famous lesbian tennis players. Stubbs came out as a lesbian in 2006. Stubbs made her television debut on The Power Hour on November 14, 2022.
Samantha Stosur – 1984
Samantha Jane Stosur is an Australian tennis player who was born on March 30, 1984, in Brisbane, Queensland. She once held the title of world No. 1 in doubles, a position she originally attained on February 6, 2006, and held for 61 straight weeks. From October 2008 to June 2017, Stosur held the top spot among Australian singles players for 452 consecutive weeks and spent nine straight years inside the top 25.
She accumulated more than $20 million in prize money in addition to 40 career victories (9 in singles, 28 in doubles, and 3 in mixed doubles), including 8 major titles.
She and her girlfriend Liz Astling made the announcement of the birth of their daughter Genevieve on July 13, 2020. Since this was the first public disclosure of being in a relationship and becoming a mother.
Lisa Raymond – 1973
Lisa Raymond is a former professional tennis player from the United States who excelled at doubles tennis. She was born on August 10, 1973, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Six of Raymond’s eleven Grand Slam victories came in women’s doubles competition, while five came in mixed doubles. She became the 13th player to do so on June 12, 2000, when she attained the world’s No. 1 doubles ranking for the first time.
The fourth-highest ranking of all time, Raymond held the top spot for 137 weeks during the course of her career. In 2001 and 2006, she also concluded the year as the top doubles player. She now holds the WTA record for both the most doubles matches played (1,206) and doubles matches won (860), and her career prize money totaled more than $10 million.
She made the decision to stop competing in singles in February 2007 in order to concentrate on her doubles career. Lisa doesn’t yet have a husband because she isn’t yet wed. She is out about her sexuality and identifies as a lesbian.
Other Lesbian Tennis Players
- Jana Novotná: Born 1968 – Died 2017
- Gigi Fernández: Born 1964
- Billie Jean King: Born 1943
- Ilana Kloss: Born 1956
- Hana Mandlíková: Born 1962
Curent lesbian tennis players
Check out the list of curent lesbian tennis players who their tennis career is still active.
- Greet Minnen
- Alison Van Uytvanck
- Nadia Podoroska
- Tara Moore
- Samantha Stosur
Above is our list of the best lesbian tennis players ever. Hopefully, in this list, there are your favorite tennis players. In addition, don’t forget to visit International LGBT Football for the latest news on lgbtq tennis players!
