Shortly after having published a selfie with his boyfriend on social networks, João Lucas Reis da Silva had one of the best weeks of his career on the tennis court.
It was perhaps a coincidence, and perhaps the two events were entirely unrelated, but Reis Da Silva felt rejuvenated while he went to the Procopio Cup victory in December, ending 2024 at the top.
A few days earlier, the Brazilian had common A simple birthday message to his boyfriend on Instagram, signing it: “I love you very much.” The answer was overwhelming. People around the world began to get in touch with Reis Da Silva, thanking him for what he had done and sending their support.
“It was a buzz that I didn’t expect,” he said CNN Sport. Playing Procopio in São Paulo the same week, the 24 -year -old explains how the reaction “gave me strength” while he was riding on the field.
For tennis sport, the apparently harmless Instagram post of Reis Da Silva was revolutionary, largely reported to make him the first active male player to go out gay.
Several former players, including the Americans Brian Vahaly and Bobby Blair, came out after the end of their career, but the gay models were curiously absent from male tennis.
On the other hand, some of the largest icons in the female game – Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, for example – are high -level members of the LGBTQ community, while the current world number 12 n ° 12 Daria Kasatkina was released in 2022.
“I think our society takes two girls together (more) easily than two guys together”, Kasatkina said During a recent episode of the fantastic tennis podcast when asked why there was such a shortage of openly gay male tennis players.
“I think this is the main problem. Due to the stereotypes that man must be masculine and this and that prevented a lot of guys from going out. “”
In a interview With ATP last year, Vahaly said it was “very common to use a homophobic language” as a male tennis player on the tour in the early 2000s, which made him “a little uncomfortable” for homosexuals like him. However, he added that he “had never found the tour openly homophobic”.
As for Reis Da Silva, it is not quite sure that there are more openly gay players in female tennis. However, he underlines the lack of gay models in the game of men and also remembers his own anxieties towards discussing his sexuality, even with those who are close to him.
“With my friends, my tennis friends who were with me in practice and the locker room, every day we merge on the problems,” explains Reis Da Silva. “If something changes, I would feel alone because there is no one there. If it goes bad, what can I do? I just have to accept that people do not accept me. I was afraid of that.
“But one day, I said to myself:” Okay, I must tell people because I can’t live like that anymore, I can’t talk to my parents anymore. “”
When he left his family and friends at the age of 18, Reis Da Silva experienced instant relief.
“I felt like I had taken a big rock from my shoulders,” he says. “I had to say to someone … When I did it, it was really good – the feeling, to wake up the next day, was perfect. And I was lucky that my parents are good with that. Not everyone has that.
Reis Da Silva is currently classified n ° 423 in the world, aspiring to obtain enough points to play in the qualification of a Grand Chelem event later this year.
His victory at the Procopio Cup earned him a place in qualification for the Rio Open – the largest tournament of the ATP Tour in South America – but he was defeated in the first round by a possible quarter of the Tandeng Chun -Hin finalist.
Despite a series of defeats before the Rio Open, Reis Da Silva was satisfied with the way he played, confident that his results will improve over time. He then had a series of Challenger tournaments in South America – in Argentina, Chile and at home in Brazil.
“I like to continue to compete,” he says. “In these times when I feel good, I need this rhythm, I need to play as many games as possible at the moment. I think it’s a good thing for me.
Reis Da Silva identifies his endurance – his ability to resist long games and long rallies – like one of his strengths, alongside a powerful reverse and an aggressive return.
These days, he is used to having the support of his boyfriend, Guilherme Sampaio Ricardo, on the side of the courtyard during the tournaments. The pair has now been between the other for two years and frequently goes to events together, provided that Ricardo can do it around his work as an actor and a model.
Reis Da Silva describes the Instagram post in December as a moving decision, a simple way to show his love for her boyfriend. Its impact and its scope have been completely unexpected, Reis Da Silva soon receiving a flood of fans of fans newly acquired from the whole world.
“I felt really good,” he says. “I had the impression that people were there for me, supported me, and it was a great feeling … I received almost nothing wrong, nothing insulting that I thought I could arrive, but that was not the case.
“() Tennis fans, it was more love, more support. Like: “We see you, we want you at the top.” »»
The most pleasant, however, was the reaction of his colleagues tennis players. “It didn’t change anything,” adds Reis Da Silva, “and it was the best thing for me.”
To not change anything, this is precisely what Reis Da Silva wants at the moment, reluctant to adopt a new radical approach to tennis and life simply because of a selfie that he shared online. He is, above all, a tennis player, and it was the case before and after the world became aware of his sexuality.
That it is now considered by some as a model for gay tennis players is only a good coincidence.
“I will continue to do the same,” says Reis Da Silva. “I wake up tomorrow at 8 am and I go to court and try to be my best player and the best person. If people look at me and inspire me with what I have done and who I am, I would like to know and I love to see it. But I really don’t want to keep this (like) my responsibility.
“My responsibility, for me, is to do the best job I can do on the court. This is what I’m looking for, that’s what I continue. “”
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