The ATP has announced the launch of a multi-year education partnership with You Can Play, an organisation committed to furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport. The collaboration aims to build on insights from a first-ever LGBTQ+ survey completed by ATP players last season.
You Can Play, a long-time partner of the NHL, MLS and NASCAR, is a non-profit organisation with an impressive track record furthering safety and inclusion for all who participate in sports, including LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches and fans. Through the multi-year partnership, ATP has committed to developing an education programme aimed at furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion on Tour. Together, the two organisations will create science-based educational content to be rolled out across ATP players, tournaments and staff over coming seasons, with content directly informed by insights and data from an ATP survey conducted last year.
The survey, developed in collaboration with Pride Sports and renowned researchers at Monash University (Melbourne), aimed to understand the experiences and perceptions of ATP players, reveal potential barriers to inclusion, and offer data-driven insights to make tennis safe and welcoming for all. The initiative also formed part of ATP’s wider drive to strengthen diversity and inclusion through the ATP Serves programme.
Made open to players on an anonymous basis, the survey looked at behaviours and attitudes across various stakeholder groups and levels of the tennis ecosystem, in order to build as comprehensive a picture of LGBTQ+ inclusion as possible. In total 65 ATP players took part, with the majority of respondents ranked inside the world’s Top 250. Several players also participated in voluntary one-on-one interviews to offer in-depth personal perspectives on the topic. Data was then independently analysed by the researchers and compiled into a final report.
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