The trailblazing women of tennis making a change

Tennis season is officially in full swing, with the Indian Wells tournament wrapping up last week and the Miami Open currently cruising towards finals in South Florida.

Usually a sport that sits in the side columns of the major American sports media outlets, the events of the past several years – and the past couple of months in particular – have shot tennis into top headlines. From Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal officially securing the most Grand Slam titles of all time after his champion performance at the Australian Open in January, to Novak Djokovic’s dramatic and persistent refusal to receive the Covid-19 vaccination, which ultimately led to his exclusion from the first Grand Slam of the year, sparked global debate, and resulted in a general distaste for a player widely considered one of – if not the – greatest of all time.

Still, the women in the sport are also making headlines for major reasons. The playing field of professional tennis is packed with pioneering women who are making significant strides in speaking up for mental health awareness, women’s financial independence, equal pay, and more.

Here’s a brief overview of three top women tennis players that are leading the narrative of the sport both on and off the court, establishing social activism, and standing up for themselves and others as the new standard of sportsmanship.

Naomi Osaka

After making headlines in 2021 for her withdrawal from the French Open due to mental health reasons, 24 year- old Naomi Osaka has continued to use her global platform to spread awareness surrounding mental health topics, activating wider acceptance of mental health struggles in women and athletes through her clear-hearted, down-to-earth, and utterly honest transparency about her own experiences with depression and anxiety.

Most recently, Osaka used her young-but-already-proven-powerful voice to stand up for herself within the tennis world once again. During her recent match at Indian Wells – one of the major Grand Slam tournaments in tennis – a heckler in the stands repeatedly yelled derogatory statements directed at Osaka. Reaching a breaking point, Osaka requested to use the umpire’s microphone to address the fan but was denied.

After the match, when questioned about the heckler during an interview, Osaka recounted that usually, she can shrug off situations such as these, but receiving verbal abuse from an onlooker in this particular arena, during this particular tournament, struck a deep nerve that caused her to speak up. Osaka recalled a video from 2001 of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams being brutally heckled at the Indian Wells tournament over a decade prior. Experiencing the same heckling she had seen her predecessors experience in the same arena carried a significant weight to Osaka, who is part of a generation of tennis players that grew up idolizing the Williams sisters.

Along with her mental health advocacy, Osaka also is an active voice in women’s equality movements, and her most recent partnership with cryptocurrency FTX is rooted in a message of financial freedom and equity for women. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Osaka shared the reasoning behind her launch into the cryptocurrency space. “We have seen the statistics about how few women are part of crypto by comparison, which kind of mirrors the inequality we see in other financial markets,” Osaka shared. “Cryptocurrencies started with the goal of being accessible to everyone and breaking down barriers to entry. I’m excited to partner with FTX to get back to that mission and to innovate on new ways to reach more people and further democratize the space.”

Serena Williams

Easily considered the most dominant female tennis player of all time, 23-time Grand Slam title holder Serena Williams’ determination and drive reaches far beyond the court. Most recently, she launched her own venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, which aims to invest in projects led by founders with diverse points of view. In early March, the firm raised over $100 million in its inaugural funding round.

Williams was inspired to launch the firm after hearing Caryn Seidman-Becker, CEO of Clear, speak at an event about the disparity between women and men in the venture capital space. Seidman-Becker revealed the unfortunate fact that only 2 percent of all venture funds went to female founders. As Williams told the New York Times, “I literally couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that 98 percent of all this money we’re talking about – billions of dollars – goes to one type of individual.”

Williams was inspired to take matters into her own able hands and used her global reputation and expertise in leadership to launch a fund where she would call the shots, ensuring that the 2% figure won’t stay so small in the future.

Along with her financial endeavors, Williams has been a constant leader in body positivity on the court. In 2018, the cat-suit style outfit she was set to wear to prevent blood clots post-pregnancy was banned by the event’s executive committee, a decision widely perceived to be a racist and sexist slight against the athlete. Throughout her career, Williams confidently embraced her African-American heritage in a sport that was historically very Euro-centric and predominantly white. In 2019, Williams explained to Allure Magazine that ​​she and her sister, Venus, “started out being successful, continued to be successful, and we were also unapologetically ourselves. We were not afraid to wear braids. We weren’t afraid to be Black in tennis. And that was different.” The trailblazing efforts of the Williams sisters paved the path for the next generation of athlete-leaders like Osaka.

Ashleigh Barty

Earlier this month, Australian athlete Ashleigh Barty, who is currently ranked as the #1 female tennis player in the world, announced her retirement from the sport. At just 25, she already holds three Grand Slam titles and was projected to win many more. When announcing her shocking departure from professional competition, she largely attributed her decision to burnout and a desire to try something new – something other than tennis.

Her decision to leave the sport while quite literally holding the top position is just another step in her long-standing reputation for following only the rules – and boundaries – she set for herself, not the ones society or the sport’s strict standards set for her.

Several years ago, just as Barty’s career was bursting onto the scene and sparking whispers of future superstardom, she abruptly left the tennis court to play cricket for three years. Her hiatus broke with every expectation of hyper-competitiveness and unmatched devotion from athletes at the top of their class. Her reputation within tennis, beyond her athletic prowess, also set her apart from the norm, as she was continuously “going against the cutthroat tradition of the pro tour and making friends with other players from other countries,” as reporter Steve Tignor explained. Now she is retiring at No. 1, at the age of 25, when most of the tennis world expected an athlete of her caliber to remain on the world stage for another decade or more.

Beyond the bold message she sends just by being undeniably herself, Barty also sends the same clear message of prioritizing what matters to her through her off-court pursuits. For example, in 2020, when wildfires were ravaging her home country, Barty donated all of her winnings from Brisbane International to the Australian Red Cross’s efforts during the fires. That same year, she teamed up with the Australian Tennis Foundation to provide financial support to Indigenous Tennis Programs in Queensland. She is an avid lover of her home country, and this love, along with her refusal to bend to who the world thinks she should be or what she should do, is clear in the statement she shared when discussing her retirement. She explained that “I know that people may not understand it. I’m OK with that. Because I know that Ash Barty the person has so many dreams she wants to chase after that don’t necessarily involve traveling the world, being away from my family, from my home, which is where I’ve always wanted to be.”

A recent Tennis.com article expounded on Barty’s legacy of carving her path to the top that never involved wavering from her character, and just how important leaders such as Barty are in sports. As Steve Tignor wrote, “Whether Barty comes back or not, I hope her attitude toward her work and life continue to influence the players around her, and those younger than her. At a time when the mental health of athletes and young people is more precarious than ever, Barty offered a roadmap not only for how to play the game well on court, but how to treat yourself well off it.”