ARYNA SABALENKA has claimed it wouldn’t be fair for women to face trans tennis stars in the pro game.
The Ukrainian, 27, is preparing for her Battle of the Sexes match against Nick Kyrgios in Dubai on December 28.
And while promoting the event on Piers Morgan Uncensored, she was asked about the prospect of facing a trans player.
The World No 1 said she “didn’t agree” with the idea because they had a “huge advantage” over women.
Sabalenka told Morgan: “That’s a tricky question. I have nothing to do against them.
“But I feel like they still got a huge advantage over the women and I think it’s not fair on women to face basically biological men,”
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“It’s not fair. The woman has been working her whole life to reach her limit and then she has to face a man, who is biologically much stronger, so for me I don’t agree with this kind of stuff in sport.”
Currently in tennis, there have been no trans stars hoping to compete in the professional women’s game.
The last known trans player on the womens tour was Renee Richards, who competed on the WTA Tour between 1977 and 1981.
The WTA does permit transgender women to be included on their tour so long as they have declared their gender to be female for a minimum of four years.
They must have also lowered their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for the last two years and agreed to testing procedures.
It came after Sabalenka’s tennis rival Marta Kostyuk caused a stir after she reportedly told a tennis outlet that the Ukrainian star had “more testosterone” than her.
However, it was later claimed that Kostyuk was speaking in general terms about rival tennis players and was not directly referencing Sabalenka.
Kostyuk told Tennis365: “When I look at these players, I have my own skills, but at the end of the day, they are all much bigger than me, much taller than me, much stronger than me. We all have different biological structures.
“Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. I know players who are good players who have higher levels of it. It’s just natural, they don’t take anything. I’m sure of that. It’s just the biology of their body.
“Obviously, that definitely helps. I’m trying to see how I can beat these players with the tennis skills I have, but I have to work more than they have to win the points.”
Sabalenka was asked about Kostyuk’s comments during her interview with Morgan and hit back at her rival.
She said: “That’s so funny that we even talk about someone like Marta Kostyuk’s comments but all I hear here is just excuses, and it’s actually quite funny because she’s a strong girl.
“She probably has more muscles than I do and she looks fit and strong and that’s not the case in all of the matches she lost against top players.”
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