Joao Lucas Reis da Silva becomes first active men's pro tennis player to come out publicly

Jo Lucas Reis Da Silva from Brazil has made history as the first active male professional tennis player to publicly come out.

The 24-year-old shared photos on Instagram featuring actor and model Gui Sampaio Ricardo, ‘Sky Sports’ reports.

He captioned the posts with: “Happy birthday. Happy life. I love you so much.”

Da Silva currently holds the 401st spot in singles on the ATP Tour, having previously achieved a career-high ranking of 259 last May.

Recently, he reached the semi-finals of the Temuco Challenger in Chile and was a finalist at the Florianopolis Challenger in Brazil earlier this year.

In 2017, former world No. 64 Brian Vahaly came out as gay, a decade after his retirement, and discussed the challenges faced by gay male players.

“I heard homophobic comments all the time in the locker room, to my face, behind my back,” Vahaly shared with The Telegraph in 2018. “That was just a part of the culture.”

In recent years, several female tennis players have publicly identified as gay, including Top-10 player Daria Kasatkina, who is in a relationship with champion figure skater Natalia Zabiiako, as well as Nadia Podoroska, Greet Minnen, and Sam Stosur. Legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova are among the most famous openly gay athletes.

Kasatkina mentioned that coming out helped alleviate the pressure she felt from keeping that part of her life hidden.

“I felt less pressure,” she explained. “I put this pressure out of my shoulders because when you have to think about tennis but also to think about some deep things inside your head, it's just not good.”

“After expressing all these things, I just felt much better,” she said. “That was one of the best decisions of the last year and I'm happy with the outcome. And thanks to the people who were next to me supporting me.”