It happens every Slam, and during Masters tournaments, too — there’s an uptick in traffic to my half-assed tennis posts as Googlers descend, having searched some combination of “Świątek + lesbian” that points them here, hopeful detectives chasing dead ends. I regret to inform every last one of you that you’ve been duped. Because this site has the word ‘lesbian’ in its name, and because I often mention Świątek, my favorite active WTA player now that Serena Williams has retired, you’re nudged in this direction.
But I don’t publicly traffic in gossip about whether tennis pros are gay — I save that for message boards and private emails with friends, like a gentlewoman. And I know nothing of Świątek’s personal life anyway, though I’d suggest that as the world #1, with tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals hanging in the balance, she has little incentive to swing open the closet door in the prime of her career if she’s hanging out in there. (You know she’d be up to something geeky in the closet, like reading with a flashlight.) An openly gay #1 isn’t unprecedented — Amelie Mauresmo did it — but it’s rare in any sport.*
Before you ‘x’ out of this tab in frustration to continue your fruitless hunt for information, I encourage anyone who hasn’t already done so to read Świątek’s excellent Players’ Tribune piece from January, “The Story of a Polish Introvert.” The passages about her dad will choke you up and her candor about early struggles with socialization and perfectionism had me on the edge of my seat — I thought we were about to get a coming-out of a different sort:
You might imagine that I stayed up all night as a kid dreaming about being a big tennis player, but no. To tell you the truth, at night, I dreamed about feeling a bit more natural in social situations.
There was a time in my life when I was so introverted that speaking to people was a real challenge. Until I was 17 or 18, it was hard sometimes to look people in the eyes. I hated how hard it was for me. It felt really bad not being able to make connections. But with some people, my mind was just blank, and I didn’t know what to say. Small talk wasn’t natural to me.
IGA Świątek, “the story of a polish introvert”
Was she on the cusp of disclosing that she has ASD or OCD? It seemed possible, though it wasn’t the case. For now she lets her racquet do the talking, and I for one am happy to listen. Here’s hoping she makes it to the second week of Wimbledon this year. My lucky socks are ready.
*When Martina Navratilova came out in 1981, she originally did so as bisexual. Years later, she clarified that she’s gay. Billie Jean King’s journey to gay icon status was even more tortured than that.
Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
Elizabeth
Actually there’s nothing wrong with us lesbians looking for role models or inspiration. There are basically no famous lesbians under the age of 35. Martina is nearly 70… people like you begrudge young lesbians any representation in the world.
Cranky
Thank you for commenting, which I mean sincerely even though I’m about to write that I’m not much older than 35 myself and could do without a lecture. This post wasn’t written for young lesbians in search of inspiration; they aren’t the ones who end up here every time there’s a Slam, judging by the homophobic responses I regularly delete.
More famous women are ‘out’ at earlier ages today than at any other point in history, despite all the room for improvement. (The situation was so dire when I started writing here almost 20 years ago that I made Eva Le Gallienne jokes.) Young tennis fans in particular have a phenomenal role model in Daria Kasatkina, and she isn’t the only WTA player who’s ‘out,’ though she’s currently the highest-ranked and most visible.
As for Świątek, would I take a bit of extra pride in any successes she enjoyed as an openly gay player? Sure, and I’d feel no differently about most WTA or ATP players. (There are exceptions to every rule: John Isner could’ve been gayer than Truman Capote and his game would still enrage me.) But she’s a great role model regardless and I already find her quite inspiring for myriad reasons, which should be clear from the original post.