The WTA gene testing requirement took effect Tuesday, making a one time DNA screening mandatory for every player on the women’s professional tennis tour and a condition of competing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The tour updated its women’s eligibility policy this week to include gender screening based on biological sex, saying the change was made “to preserve the integrity of women’s professional tennis” and to maintain fair competition conditions for all players.
Players will be screened for the SRY gene, a segment of DNA typically found on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development before birth and indicates the presence of testes. The test can be completed through a cheek swab, a blood test or a saliva sample. A player who tests negative is immediately eligible to compete on tour. A positive result triggers further medical assessment before eligibility is determined.
The policy defines its terms strictly around that single genetic marker. Under the WTA gene testing standard, a biological male is anyone who has an SRY gene and therefore has or previously had testes or streak testes, regardless of legal sex or gender identity. A biological female is anyone with no SRY gene who therefore has or previously had ovaries or streak ovaries, again regardless of legal sex or gender identity.
The WTA said the policy draws a line between biological sex and gender identity and that there is no intent to disrespect or question the gender identity or the dignity of any person. The tour called the issue sensitive and complex and said it is committed to treating all players with dignity and to implementing the policy respectfully. Screening begins this year alongside a player engagement program, with the tour promising confidentiality and data privacy safeguards.
The change did not originate with tennis. In March, the International Olympic Committee introduced an eligibility policy aligning with Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the 2028 Games, and Olympic sports bodies have been falling in line since. The WTA is complying with what functions as a directive from the IOC rather than a rule it developed independently. The tour said the policy was approved after consultation with its members and a review of evolving eligibility standards across international women’s sports.
Tennis is not the first sport here. World Athletics mandated SRY testing for female category eligibility earlier this year. World Boxing introduced mandatory sex testing for all boxers in May. Skiing’s governing body has adopted screening as well. The WTA gene testing policy puts one of the highest profile women’s leagues in the world into that group.
What the policy replaces is a very different framework. The tour’s previous eligibility rules, last updated in 2024, allowed trans identifying players to compete in the women’s category if they kept testosterone below 2.5 nmol/L for at least two years. That approach measured a current physiological state that could change. The new one measures a fixed genetic marker that cannot.
The scale of the problem being addressed remains the most contested part of the story. There are no known trans women currently competing at any level of professional women’s tennis. Tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg, who first reported the policy change, wrote that there have not been for close to half a century. It also remains unclear how many trans women, if any, are competing in any sport at Games level. Supporters of screening argue that eligibility standards should be settled in advance rather than litigated case by case once a dispute arises, and that a clear genetic line removes the ambiguity that testosterone thresholds created.
Human rights experts and advocacy organizations have criticized mandatory gender screening across the sports that have adopted it, and the objection most often raised is that SRY testing does not primarily identify trans women. It identifies athletes with differences in sex development, women who have competed as women their entire lives and in many cases learn about their own biology through the testing process itself.
That fight has a long record in track and field. Caster Semenya, the two time Olympic 800 meters champion, spent years challenging World Athletics regulations that required female athletes with DSDs to medically reduce their testosterone. Earlier this year the European Court upheld a 2023 ruling that her appeal to a Swiss Federal Tribunal against those regulations had not been properly heard, a procedural win in a case that has run for the better part of a decade without resolving the underlying question.
For WTA players the practical picture is simpler and more immediate. The screening is a one time requirement rather than an ongoing testing protocol, it is written as a condition of eligibility rather than an optional program, and a player who does not complete it is not eligible to enter WTA tournaments. What the tour has not detailed publicly is how a positive result and the medical assessment that follows would be handled in terms of appeals, or what a player in that position could expect to remain private once the process begins.
