British tennis bans trans women from all competitive female matcheshttps://www.thepinknews.com/2026/08/10/british-tennis-ban-trans-women-female-matches/ 🔗Tom Hutt-Dixon (10 Aug 2026)
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) announced the change on Thursday (7 August), citing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's new Code of Practice on the Equality Act, published after last year's Supreme Court ruling that "woman" and "sex" in the Act refer to biological sex.
The LTA already restricted transgender women and non-binary people assigned male at birth from the women's category, but only in competitions between players from different clubs or counties.
Under the updated policy, that will now apply to all "structured competition", including club championships and any sex-categorised event with a competitive consequence. Social and "open" play remain unrestricted. The policy comes into force on 1 September.
The change applies only to domestic British competitions overseen by the LTA, and does not affect international events held in the UK such as Wimbledon.
The policy follows a wave of other UK sporting and institutional bodies tightening restrictions on trans participation since the Supreme Court ruling, with the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Football Association both moving to bar trans women from women's competitions earlier this year.
