Tennis players set up new league for trans women forced out of sport
A group of women have opened an inclusive tennis league (stock image via Getty Images)
In response to repeated attacks against trans athletes, a group of women have started their own new recreational tennis league in Las Vegas to make the sport more inclusive.
Tennis with Friends was co-founded by Valarie Witherspoon and Christine Delisle in an attempt to find a home for transgender women that could no longer play in existing leagues.
Speaking to Las Vegas Fox affiliate KVVU, Witherspoon said: “It started with a text of five people saying, oh, we’re going to play every week. We’re going to figure out a way to play. We’re not losing you.”
READ MORE: World No1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka ‘doesn’t agree’ with trans athletes in women’s sport
Many trans athletes were left without clubs when the United States Tennis Association quietly banned transgender women from participating and competing with the release of its most recent USTA Player Eligibility Policy in December 2025.
The changes were made “to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201”.
“Some people have gone as far as to quit the league and say, we’re not being a part of this anymore,” Delisle said of her previous league, which had about five trans members.
“And taking them out of that league really left them with an empty space not to be able to come out on a Saturday and Sunday and be with their friends.”
She continued: “You’re going to have lots of people who say, ‘Well, yes, there shouldn’t be people playing in women’s sports who aren’t women.’ And then you have people who are saying, ‘Let them play because it’s recreational tennis.’ None of us is competing for scholarships or prize money.”
“The main word that keeps coming up is community, these women just want to hang out with their friends,” Witherspoon said.
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