History has been made in men’s tennis, with Joao Reis becoming the first active male professional player to come out.
The 24-year-old Brazilian star, ranked 401st in the world on the ATP Tour, took to Instagram to make the historic announcement.
He shared a series of photos with his boyfriend, actor and model Gui Sampaio Ricardo, on Sunday (8 December), and captioned the images: “Happy birthday. Happy life. I love you so much.”
Ricardo responded by writing: “Te amo,” (I love you).
Tennis has several out queer female players and has a long history of out lesbian stars. Russian tennis star and current top 10 player Daria Kasatkina, came out publicly in 2022. Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska – at one time number 36 in the world – followed suit a few months later.
American former world number 57 Brian Vahaly came out as gay in 2017, 10 years after retiring from the sport, and shed light on some of the barriers faced by gay male players.
“I heard homophobic comments all the time in the locker room, to my face, behind my back,” he told The Telegraph in 2018. “That was just a part of the culture.”
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