The Association of Tennis Professionals will be unveiling a coffee table book, ATP Confidential, this December, and its promotional materials promise that the book, featuring blogs from players including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, “reveals secrets of the stars.” But don't expect any of those secrets to be that any of the men on the tennis tour are gay.

In fact, officially at least, the last known gay men's tennis champion was Bill Tilden, who won three Wimbledon and seven U.S. titles between 1920–30. “Tilden, [who] was considered the greatest male tennis player of his era, was gay, and people on the tour knew that he was gay,” says Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports.com. Since then, no men's tennis players have been openly gay. There have only been rumors, speculation and plenty of wishful thinking from gay male fans who flock to the practice courts to watch such heartthrobs as Nadal, Tommy Haas and Marat Safin work out.

“I don't even know who the gay guys are, that's how much in the closet they are,” Martina Navratilova, an out lesbian during most of her 30-plus seasons on the women's tour, told us. “Some, of course, are pretending to be straight. They are afraid of the consequences.” Consequences such as losing lucrative product endorsements — as Navratilova did — or enduring homophobic hostility from fans.

“Everything that I've done, I've known what the consequences will be, but I'm willing to accept them,” Navratilova recently said to AfterEllen.com. “If I didn't come out and pretended I was someone else, what are those consequences? I would not be who I am. Not being accepted by Madison Avenue because I was a lesbian — I could accept those consequences. My guidelines are totally philosophical and what's morally right to me. I was never guided by financial gain.”

There haven't even been retired male tennis players who have come out of the closet — something that has happened in other sports with Billy Bean (baseball), Greg Louganis (diving), Rudy Galindo (figure skating), David Kopay (football) and Mark Tewksbury (swimming). All of these men went public about their sexuality after they were through competing.

“I'm sure there are gay [tennis] players in the top 100, and it's just so much easier for a man not to disclose,” says Bean. “A lot of people want to see it happen because they feel it's time, but at the end of the day, you still have to get out there in front of fans and that judgment, in addition to already being dissected for your play. If it is going to happen, tennis would be a logical destination. A tennis tournament is usually an intellectually upscale environment as compared to what an athlete would face at an NFL football game.”

The men's tour is officially opposed to any type of discrimination against its players. “The ATP fully supports all its members, regardless of ranking, age, nationality, race, religion or sexual preference,” says Pete Holtermann, senior communications manager for ATP Americas.

But the sexual preference part has yet to be tested. To date, Holtermann says he “can't think of any situation” where a player on tour is known to be gay to the other players, but is not publicly out. Still, Holtermann doesn't believe fans would have much of an issue with an out male player. “Tennis fans have shown they embrace players for who they are,” he says. “Being such an international sport, there are a multitude of nationalities and cultures represented on the ATP circuit, and tennis fans have proven to be very open to all of them. I would fully expect the same to be the case with regards to a player's sexual preference.”

Buzinski says that at the elite, pro level, “it's considered a bad career move to be out. For a woman, it seems to be different. Lesbians are given a little more freedom to do that and have their career survive. For a man, it is perceived to be career suicide.”

Bean believes that the fact that Navratilova, Amelie Mauresmo (currently ranked first in the world) and retired legend Billie Jean King are all out “reinforces the difference between the men's locker room and the female locker room, and the male athlete existing in that environment.”

With most top players in their teens and 20s, Buzinski wonders if it is too much to ask of any of them to be open about their sexual orientation as they are trying to grind out wins on the ATP tour. “Anyone who is gay knows a lot of people come out in their 20s and 30s and 40s,” he says. “Why do we expect athletes to be any different? I'm not sure they see an upside. So much of it is fear of the unknown. That is what everyone deals with. They assume it can be bad, so why do I want to add one more level of stress to an already stressful career?”

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