Tennis stars have long been allies for gay players. Meet 6 of them.

Wimbledon 2025 starts Monday and and it’s a great time to remind people of active and retired tennis players who shown themselves as allies to gay athletes, pushing for a more inclusive environment for tennis players to come out

Andy Roddick

When Tennis Channel sportscaster Brett Haber began recruiting for Athlete Ally, an organization dedicated to “equal access, opportunity, and experience in sports,” he knew that former American world No. 1 and a longtime champion of various social issues on the tour Andy Roddick would jump on the opportunity to sign up.

Roddick has been a vocal supporter of gay athletes on tour, even criticizing the tours decision to partner with Saudi Arabia where homosexuality is criminalized. After Daria Kasatkina came out in 2023, Roddick supported Kasatkina, saying, “If she goes [to Saudi Arabia] to play, are we just telling her to take a week off of her sexuality? How do we protect our own players, whose life choices are viewed as criminal when they enter this place?” Roddick has been a consistent supporter of same-sex marriage, and one of the most reliable allies in men’s tennis.

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Andy Murray

Andy Murray and Roddick share not just the same first name, but also their unwillingness to stay silent on social and political issues. Murray was interviewed by “Pride Life” in 2020, detailing his stances on a number of issues on the tour related to gay players.

“I think there’s still a stigma around it which obviously shouldn’t be the case,” Murray said. He believes that the tour “should definitely be doing a better job of celebrating Pride and that it’s far from where we should be.” When asked about whether Margaret Court Arena in Australia should be renamed over her invidious comments on LGBT people, Murray said, “Yes, it’s something the sport should consider. I don’t know who makes the final decision on that but I don’t think her values are what tennis stands for. When you get to the Australian Open you want to concentrate on the tennis. Court’s views detract from that.”

Madison Keys

American and former world No. 5 Madison Keys is not just known for a explosive play style, but also as a consistent supporter of her fellow gay athletes on the women’s circuit, celebrating Pride Month on the tour.

“Pride Month to me is this massive celebration of all of these different people coming together and celebrating being yourself, being true to yourself. I have been incredibly embraced by the LGBTQ+ community,” she said. In 2020, Keys found herself with excess time on her hands, and when amateur tennis players from the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance advertised their desire to interview players, Keys was eager to pick up their call. 

Mardy Fish

American Mardy Fish, ranked as high as world No. 7, was a prominent supporter of gay athletes on tour, joining Athlete Ally with Roddick after Jason Collins came out as the first openly gay NBA player in 2013.

“Everybody deserves a shot at playing sports,” Fish said. “It shouldn’t matter in the least if that person is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Building community through healthy and inclusive activities should be one of the main focuses behind athletics, and that isn’t possible if you exclude LGBT individuals, especially our youth.”

It’s remarkable that Fish has made the time to support gay athletes on tour given his own tumultuous time on tour. He was featured on Netflix’s “Breaking Point” documentary, detailing his severe struggles with anxiety attacks.

Chris Evert

American women’s player Chris Evert played at a time when the tour was facing severe backlash for being a ‘tour full of lesbians.’ Major companies were pulling endorsements and newspaper were stoking fears by running sensationalized stories about the horrors of women’s locker rooms.

Evert, however, wanted nothing to do with what Martina Navratilova labeled as the “gay witchhunt on the tour,” perhaps becoming tennis’s first gay ally. In 1981, Evert backed Billie Jean King’s decision to come out in an opinion-editorial in World Tennis magazine: “Who are we to knock it if someone is gay? I think every man or woman has the right to choose how to live his or her own life. We’re in no position to judge right and wrong in someone else’s private life. … I just hope that emotionally Billie Jean comes out all right. I hope this incident doesn’t change her attitude toward life or love or anything. Her enthusiasm and her courage. I would hate to see her lose any of that because that would be an even bigger injustice than [violating] her privacy.” 

Fully aware that even publicly labeling herself as an ally was potentially devastating to the reputation of both herself and the women’s tour, she put everything on the line to back King. Later, in 1992, she was asked by Sports Illustrated about the impact of Martina Navratilova coming out and whether she could be considered a role model because of her sexuality.

“Being gay has hurt her with endorsements,” Evert said of Navratilova. “In terms of her being a role model, I would tell my child to look at the way she conducts herself on the court. Look at how she fights for every point. And look how honest she is with people. I guess a lot of parents aren’t ready for that yet.” Her compassion was rare at a time when athletes often stayed silent on the topic of athletes coming out.

John McEnroe

Known for his temper and a fiery, McEnroe is one of Margaret Court’s fiercest critics for her hateful comments. In fact, he even broke protocol to display on Court Arena in Australia a banner with Martina Navratilova to rename Court arena to Evonne Goolagong Arena to honor the former Australian World No. 1.

He was forced to apologize, but made it clear: he remained opposed to the name of Margaret Court Arena. “There’s only one thing longer than the list of Margaret Court’s tennis achievements: it’s her list of offensive and homophobic statements” he said. McEnroe also pleaded with Serena Williams to break the all-time Grand Slam record that Court held, asking her to “get two more Grand Slams this year and get to 25, so we can leave Margaret Court and her offensive views in the past, where they both belong.”

​​Colby Grey is a freelance writer who reports on sports, travel, lifestyle, politics and finance. He played college tennis for UC Santa Cruz and told his coming out story in 2019.

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