American Taylor Fritz says homosexual men would be accepted on tour, calls lack of openly gay men in tennis "odd"

Taylor Fritz shared his views about the lack of openly gay male players in tennis.

In a recent interview with Clay Tenis, the American star acknowledged that there were yet to be any players ranked inside the top-100 on the men’s tour that were openly gay. The World No. 9 voiced that players would certainly be accepted by their peers and colleagues if they came out as such.

In the interview, Taylor Fritz admitted that it was a statistically odd occurrence that not a single player was homosexual and also clarified that he was just as unaware and did not have any inside knowledge on the players’ personal lives.

"I’m not sure if there are homosexual tennis players in the top 100. I don’t know. Maybe people think behind closed doors we know or something. Statistically speaking, there should be. Statistically. But not that I know," he said.

He further added,

"I think it’s odd, because I feel like a player would be accepted. Myself and my friends, other players on tour wouldn’t have any issues with it, it would be totally normal and I think people would be accepting."

The American No. 1 suggested that male athletes may fear an intense media frenzy that would distract their followers from their efforts on the tennis courts as the reason for them not opening up about their sexual orientation.

"I couldn’t tell you why (no one has come out). Obviously anytime that would be a lot of big news and maybe people just don’t want to be in the spotlight, maybe they don’t want the distraction of getting all the attention and stuff like that," Taylor Fritz said.

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As Taylor Fritz voices concerns about lack of openly gay men, tennis players Fabien Reboul and Maxence Broville share an intimate picture together

Daria Kasatkina prodly poses with girlfriend after Silicon Valley Classic title win

While many well-known women’s players such as Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Rennae Stubbs, Amelie Mauresmo and, more recently, World No. 8 Daria Kasatkina have come out as gay, there aren’t many men’s players who have done so, as rightly admitted by Taylor Fritz.

It is worth informing, however, that recently two French tennis players, Fabien Reboul and Maxence Broville, shared an intimate picture of themselves together on social media, suggesting a historic first openly gay romantic relationship between two active male tennis players.

Fabien Reboul, a doubles player on the ATP Tour with a ranking of World No. 54 posted a picture of him sharing a kiss with Maxence Broville, ranked World No. 945.

"I did not fall in love with you, your love pushed me to it," Reboul wrote on Instagram.