Aryna Sabalenka said “biologically men are stronger” and Jessica Pegula said “I don’t really have any pushback on it” on WTA’s new gender testing and both comments have points | International Sports News
Women’s tennis rarely agrees on anything — scheduling, prize money, the calendar. But the WTA’s new genetic eligibility policy, which took effect July 21, has produced something unusual: near-silence from the locker room. No protests. No open revolt. What it has produced, though, is a revealing split between two of the tour’s biggest names. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka sees the SRY gene test as a matter of principle. World No. 3 Jessica Pegula sees it as a bureaucratic update. Both reactions are worth examining.
What did Aryna Sabalenka say about the WTA gender testing policy?
Aryna Sabalenka addressed the policy at her pre-tournament press conference ahead of the National Bank Open in Toronto, making it clear she was not neutral on the subject.“I think it’s really important to keep the fairness in our tour,” she said. “Biologically, the men are way stronger than women, so I feel like it would be not really fair for the women to compete against biological men.”For Sabalenka, this is personal. She has long been one of the most physically dominant players on tour — a player whose game is built on power and aggression. The idea of competitive fairness is not abstract to her. She did acknowledge the WTA took its time getting here. “I believe it took them a little while to make this decision and, yeah, I support it,” she said. But she moved on quickly, signalling that for her, the policy is settled and she is ready to focus on tennis.Under the new WTA framework, all players must complete a one-time test for the SRY gene — a marker typically present on the Y chromosome — through either a cheek swab or a blood sample. Results remain confidential. The tour has been explicit that the policy is about eligibility for the women’s category and is not a challenge to any player’s gender identity or legal sex. Importantly, there are no known transgender women competing at any level of professional tennis right now.
Why does Jessica Pegula think the WTA gene test is not a big deal?
Jessica Pegula’s read on the situation is almost the opposite — not dismissive, but genuinely unbothered.Speaking to reporters after her opening-round win over Magdalena Fręch at the National Bank Open, Pegula was asked about the policy. She gave an answer that probably reflects where most of the locker room quietly sits.“Yeah, my opinion is I think the WTA just wanted to update their policy based on what they have seen from other sporting organizations. So far, at least from my point of view, I don’t really have any pushback on it. I think I haven’t heard, even being on council, no players have really mentioned or said anything about it,” Pegula told reporters. “Now that it’s been announced, I think we’ll see. Obviously now that we are here in Toronto, a bigger tournament, and going into Cincy when the testing starts, we’ll see if there’s any more feedback. I think so far no one’s really said anything, and I think it’s more just the tour making a decision updating it, and it kind of is what it is.”Pegula sits on the player council, which means she is one of the first to hear grumblings when players are unhappy. The absence of complaints, in her view, tells its own story. She framed the policy less as a political statement and more as a procedural alignment with what other sports organisations have already done. Whether that quiet acceptance shifts once testing actually begins in Cincinnati remains to be seen.What Sabalenka and Pegula represent are two entirely legitimate ways of engaging with the same policy. One player feels the weight of what it means. The other focuses on what it actually requires. Between the two, you get a fairly complete picture of how women’s tennis is sitting with a rule that the wider sports world is still arguing loudly about.
