Tennis star Renee Richards was born on this day in 1934. Richards came to prominence when, following her gender transition, she successfully fought for the right to compete in the 1976 US Open.
Richards trained to be an ophthalmologist, a specialist eye doctor, but also found success playing tennis. Struggling with gender dysphoria she underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1975.
In 1976 journalist Richard Carlson publicly revealed that Richards had undergone a sex change operation. The organisers of the US Open, United States Tennis Association and Women’s Tennis Association updated their rules requiring all women to undergo DNA testing before being allowed to play tennis at the game’s highest level.
Richards refused to take the test, a decision that prevented her from playing in the US Open, Wimbledon, or the Italian Open in the summer of 1976. She then sued the organisers of the US Open alleging gender discrimination under New York’s human rights laws. Richards won the case.
In 1977 Richards participated in the US Open. She lost in the first round of the singles competition to Virginia Wade. In the doubles competition, alongside partner Betty Ann Stuart she made it to the final for a showdown with Martina Navratilova and Petty Stove, which she also lost.
She continued to play professionally for many years and later coached Navratilova to two Wimbledon final wins.
Later in life Richards has expressed an ambivalent opinion about her legacy as a tennis player, and shared that she believed she had an advantage over other players due to the amount of time she lived as a male. She returned to her medical practice and later retired to a small town north of New York City.
In 1983 she published an autobiography titled Second Serve, it was later adapted in a 1986 TV movie, and an then acclaimed 2011 documentary directed by Eric Drath.
