Not long after posting a selfie with his boyfriend on social media, João Lucas Reis da Silva had one of the best weeks of his career on the tennis court.
Perhaps it was coincidence, and perhaps the two events were entirely unconnected, but Reis da Silva felt rejuvenated as he surged to victory at the Procopio Cup in December, ending 2024 on a high.
A few days earlier, the Brazilian had shared a simple birthday message to his boyfriend on Instagram, signing it: “I love you very much.” The response was overwhelming. People from all over 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 wasn’t expecting,” he tells CNN Sport. Playing at the Procopio Cup in São Paulo that same week, the 24-year-old explains how the reaction “gave me strength” as he stepped onto the court.
For the sport of tennis, Reis da Silva’s seemingly innocuous Instagram post was groundbreaking, widely reported to make him the first active male player to come out as gay.
Several former players, including Americans Brian Vahaly and Bobby Blair, have come out after their careers ended, but gay role models have by and large been curiously absent from men’s tennis.
By contrast, some of the biggest icons of the women’s game – Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, for example – are high-profile members of the LGBTQ community, while current world No. 12 Daria Kasatkina came out in 2022.
“I think that our society takes two girls together (more) easily than two dudes together,” Kasatkina said on a recent episode of the Fantastic Tennis Podcast when asked why there is such a dearth of openly gay male tennis players.
“I think that’s the main problem. Because of the stereotypes that the man has to be masculine and this and that, it’s stopped a lot of guys from coming out.”
In an interview with the ATP last year, Vahaly said that it was “very common to use homophobic language” as a male tennis player on the Tour in the early 2000s, which in turn made it “a little uncomfortable” for gay people like himself. He added, however, that he “never found the Tour to be overtly homophobic.”
As for Reis da Silva, he isn’t entirely sure why there are more openly gay players in women’s tennis. However, he does point to a lack of gay role models in the men’s game and also recalls his own anxieties towards discussing his sexuality, even with those close to him.
“With my friends, my tennis friends who were with me in practice and the locker rooms, every day we confide about issues,” says Reis da Silva. “If anything changes, I would feel alone because there’s nobody there. If it goes badly, what can I do? I just have to accept that people don’t accept me. I was scared of that.
“But then one day, I was like, ‘Okay, I have to tell people because I can’t live like that anymore, I can’t not talk to my parents.’”
When he did come out to 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 tell someone … When I did, it was really good – the feeling, waking up next day, was perfect. And I was lucky that my parents were good with that. Not everyone has this.”
Reis da Silva is currently ranked No. 423 in the world, aspiring to get enough points to play in the qualifying of a grand slam event later this year.
His victory at the Procopio Cup earned him a spot in qualifying for the Rio Open – the ATP Tour’s biggest tournament in South America – but he was defeated in the first round by eventual quarterfinalist Tseng Chun-hsin.
Despite a run of defeats prior to the Rio Open, Reis da Silva has been happy with the way he’s been playing, confident that his results will improve with time. He next has a series of Challenger tournaments around South America – in Argentina, Chile and back home in Brazil.
“I like to keep competing,” he says. “In these times that I’m feeling good, I need this rhythm, I need to play as many matches as I can right now. I think it’s a great thing for me.”
Reis da Silva identifies his endurance – his ability to withstand long matches and lengthy rallies – as one of his strengths, alongside a powerful backhand and aggressive return of serve.
These days, he is used to having the support of his boyfriend, Guilherme Sampaio Ricardo, from the side of the court at tournaments. The pair have now been with each other for two years and frequently travel together to events, provided Ricardo can fit it around his work as an actor and model.
Reis da Silva describes the Instagram post in December as a spur-of-the-moment decision, a simple way of showing his love for his boyfriend. Its impact and reach has been wholly unexpected, with Reis da Silva soon receiving a flood of messages from newly-acquired fans around the world.
“I felt really good,” he says. “I felt like people were there for me, were supporting me, and it was a great feeling … I received almost nothing bad, nothing insulting that I thought could happen, but it didn’t.
“(From) tennis fans, it was more love, more support. Like: ‘We see you, we want you at the top.’”
Most pleasing, however, was the reaction from his fellow tennis players. “It changed nothing,” Reis da Silva adds, “and it was the best thing for me.”
To change nothing is precisely what Reis da Silva wants right now, reluctant to adopt a radical new approach to tennis and life simply because of a selfie he shared online. He is, first and foremost, a tennis player, and that was the case both before and after the world became aware of his sexuality.
That he is now seen by some as a role model for gay tennis players is just a happy coincidence.
“I’ll keep doing the same thing,” says Reis da Silva. “I wake up tomorrow at 8 a.m. and go to the court and try to be my best player and the best person. If people look at me and be inspired with what I did and with who I am, I would love to know and I love to see it. But I really don’t want to keep that (as) my responsibility.
“My responsibility, for me, is to do the best job I can do on court. That’s what I’m seeking, that’s what I’m chasing.”
Source: edition.cnn.com