History was made at the US Open on Saturday as Daria Kasatkina and Greet Minnen contested the first match at a Grand Slam between two openly gay players. It was the 13th seed who came through 6-3 6-4. But Minnen was still in good spirits after the significant meeting as she said it was a “pleasure” to face Kasatkina.
Kasatkina and Minnen met in the third round of the US Open, with the Belgian coming through qualifying to reach the main draw. Their clash was contested one one of the smaller show courts – Court 17 – but it carried huge significance.
It marked the first time at a Grand Slam tournament that two openly gay players had faced off on opposite sides of the net. And Minnen was well aware of the weight that their match carried as she took to Twitter to react after losing in straight sets.
“It was a pleasure,” the world No 97 wrote alongside a rainbow emoji. It’s not the first time that Minnen has made history at a Grand Slam tournament either. The 26-year-old was previously in a relationship with fellow openly gay Belgian tennis player Alison Van Uytvanck.
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The pair played doubles together at Wimbledon back in 2019 – the first time an openly gay couple joined forces at a Major. After the match, Van Uytvanck said: “We [would like to] see more people coming forward and saying ‘It’s okay.’ I think people would have more confidence.”
And just a few weeks later, Minnen and Van Uytvanck played against each other at a WTA Tour event in Karlsruhe, kissing at the net after the 29-year-old emerged victorious. While Minnen has been involved in multiple significant moments for the LGBTQ+ community in tennis, it wasn’t until Saturday that two openly gay players met at a Major tournament.
Back in 1980, Billie Jean King faced Martina Navratilova at a Grand Slam tournament for the final time at Wimbledon. But the match was played a year before the Czech-American publicly came out as gay.
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Minnen announced her relationship with Van Uytvanck to the Belgian press back in 2018, but the pair have since been broken up for several years. Meanwhile, Kasatkina came out during a YouTube video posted by Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko last summer.
The world No 14 has since shared her relationship with competitive figure skater Natalia Zabiiako on social media. Zabiiako also has a YouTube channel where she posts vlogs from tennis tournaments, following Kasatkina around and interviewing her girlfriend’s fellow players.
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