LONDON (TNND) — The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which oversees British tennis competitions, on Wednesday released a new policy which bars transgender women from some women’s matches.

LTA’s new policy was born of a desire to be “welcoming and inclusive,” it wrote. The policy will only apply to domestic competitions and it does not determine the rules for international contests held in Britain, such as the Wimbledon Championships.

“It is clear that tennis and padel are gender-affected sports – the average man has an advantage when playing against the average woman,” LTA wrote. “This includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity means being able to get around the court more easily.”

The policy categorizes tennis competitions as either Specified or Non-Specified. Specified matches involve players from multiple clubs, whereas Non-Specified events involve those from only one venue.

Biologically male competitors cannot participate in Specified competitions under the new policy. Individual venues will be allowed to set their own transgender participation rules for Non-Specified events.

“For Non-Specified Competitions within venues, the purpose is primarily to provide fun, social competition to enable people to feel part of their local tennis community and players will be able to familiarise themselves with the policy within their own venue and hence who they are likely to be playing against,” LTA wrote. “These will range from weekend social tournaments through to Club Championships, these will be able to be fully inclusive, and the choice will be for local venues to make.”

Former tennis player Martina Navratilova cheered the move in a post via X.

“Congrats to @the_LTA, this is a good start and I am hoping the @usta and others will follow suit,” she wrote.

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The policy follows the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom’s decision to hear a case on the definition of “woman” in laws. That case is an appeal of a ruling by a Scottish court, which decided last month “woman” includes anyone whose “gender representation objective” is female.

Scottish journalist and commentator Iain Macwhirter laughed off the case via X last month as a mockery of justice.

“Today the Supreme Court will solemnly debate what a ‘woman’ is,” he wrote. “It’s such a ludicrous, comic-opera proposition you wonder how the judges will keep a straight face. Just ask a woman. This is surely peak woke: an end to the decade of misogynistic sophistry.”

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