Transsexual Chilean plays in female tennis tourney

A Chilean woman became the first transsexual to play in a professional women's tennis tournament in over thirty years.

Thirty-seven-year-old Andrea Paredes von Roth was born as Ernesto Paredes and underwent a sex change operation in 2000. Paredes began her tennis career as a man but would endure discrimination in the years after her gender change. The Chilean Tennis Federation refused to let her rent tennis courts for her training while the International Tennis Federation passed rules in 2005 effectively barring her from competing. (The ITF would later clear Paredes to compete).

Paredes made her debut last week in Buenos Aires in a Futures tournament where she was beaten 6-0, 6-0 by Britain’s Nicola Slater. Nonetheless, Paredes vowed to live her dream on the tennis courts:

"I'm tough. I've had to be. I won't let the comments get to me. I'm going to get on with playing tennis. I've had to fight all the way. People said it wasn't possible, and I had to have hormone tests with the ITF last year, so it was a big step for me to finally have the chance to play tennis. It has been my aim to play a professional match, and I've done that, but I want to go on and play more matches. All the players here in Argentina have been very tolerant and understanding of me, and I haven't had any nasty comments from anyone. They've been very nice to me. I believe that the people in Argentina are much nicer and more understanding than they are in Chile, and maybe that's because there are a lot more transsexuals in Argentina."

Image- Revista Tennis
Online Sources- The Telegraph, Milenio, sportal.com.au, Pravda