Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva of Brazil has change into the primary energetic male professional participant to return out publicly.
The 24-year-old shared a collection of images with actor and mannequin Gui Sampaio Ricardo on Instagram.
He captioned the photographs: “Happy birthday. Happy life. I love you so much.”
Da Silva is at the moment ranked 401th in singles on the ATP Tour having reached a career-high of 259 final Could.
He reached the semi-finals of the Temuco Challenger in Chile final month and was a finalist at his residence Florianopolis Challenger earlier this 12 months.
Former world No 64 Brian Vahaly got here out as homosexual in 2017, 10 years after retiring from the game, and the American make clear among the obstacles confronted by homosexual male gamers.
“I heard homophobic comments all the time in the locker room, to my face, behind my back,” he instructed The Telegraph in 2018. “That was just a part of the culture.”
A number of feminine tennis gamers have brazenly come out as homosexual lately, together with Prime-10 star Daria Kasatkina who’s in a relationship with champion determine skater Natalia Zabiiako, Nadia Podoroska, Greet Minnen and Sam Stosur, whereas icons Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova are essentially the most well-known.
Kasatkina shared that popping out as homosexual had helped her after protecting that a part of her life personal for therefore lengthy.
“I felt less pressure,” she stated. “I put this pressure out of my shoulders because when you have to think about tennis but also to think about some deep things inside your head, it’s just not good.
“I keep in mind after saying all these items, I simply felt a lot better. That was top-of-the-line choices of the final 12 months and I am proud of the end result. And due to the individuals who have been subsequent to me supporting me.”
