João Lucas Reis da Silva has become the first active player in men’s tennis to publically confirm they are in a same-sex relationship after writing a message about his partner on Instagram.
The 24-year-old Brazillian published photos of him and his boyfriend, actor and model Gui Sampaio Ricardo, earlier this week to mark Ricardo’s birthday. In the post, Silva wrote ‘Happy birthday. Happy life. I love you so much.‘ His partner responded to the message by writing ‘Te Amo‘ which is ‘I love you’ in Spanish.
Others who have commented on the post include world No.109 Thiago Monteiro who wrote maravilhosos (wonderful) in his native language. Meanwhile, da Silva’s occasional doubles partner Pedro Boscardin Dias replied with the word lindoes (beautiful).
De Silva is one of only a handful of male players to come out as a member of the LGBT community publicly, especially while still playing. The topic of out gay players has been widely discussed in recent years with many players showing their support. Novak Djokovic once stated that it is ‘everybody’s right to have sexual orientation as they desire‘ when speaking to reporters at the 2018 ATP Finals. More recently, Taylor Fritz said in 2022 ‘Myself and my friends, other players on tour wouldn’t have any issues with it, it would be totally normal and I think people would be accepting.”
Brian Vahaly is a former top 100 player who didn’t come out as gay until after retiring from the sport in 2007. During an interview with Ubitennis, he explained that he needed to take time away from the sport to come to terms with his sexuality because at the time he felt he couldn’t do so whilst playing. Vahaly has recently been appointed president and chair of the board of the United States Tennis Association for a two-year term starting January 1st.
Silva is currently ranked 364th in the PIF ATP rankings but has been as high as 204 last year. He has yet to play a main draw match on the ATP Tour but has enjoyed some success at lower-level events, winning nine ITF titles with six of those being in doubles. In 2023 he also won his first Challenger trophy at the Santiago Open in doubles alongside Boscardin Dias.