Transsexual has easy win

Press, 23 August 1976, Page 28

Transsexual has easy win

NZPA South Orange A transsexual, Renee ■ Richards, playing with the' strength of a man and the ■ grace of a woman, easily , won the first women’s match : of the “Tennis Week” Open 6-0, 6-2 yesterday and said ’ she wants to show the world she is "not a two-headed monster”. United Press International said, Miss Richards had little trouble polishing off 24-year-old Cathy Beene, of Houston, in just 50 minutes, in the tournament in this New Jersey city. With an eightinch height advantage, the seasoned player found little competition. “I don’t think the top women pros like Chris Evert should be afraid of a 41-year-old has-been man,” Miss Richards said. they were to meet me

they would know I’m not a two-headed monster,” added the 6ft 2in eye doctor, who was a nationally ranked over-35 men’s player named Richard Raskind before a sex-change operation last year. “I don’t have anything against the separate but equal idea of men’s and women’s tournaments, but I’m a woman now,” she said. “I can't play in a men’s tournament. I must play as a woman.”

More than 100 reporters and photographers, 10 times the usual number, turned out to see the controversial appearance of the tall, darkly-tanned Miss Richards, who has pencil-thin eyebrows and high cheek bones.

Wearing a white tennis skirt, blue-trimmed blouse and wristband, Miss Richards, who recently won the La Jolla, California, women’s championship, played much

like an experienced male player. She covered the court easily, her wide shoulders and long arms giving her a significant advantage. She donned a white hat halfway through the second set as a sweltering sun covered her face and eye-makeup with perspiration. She said she thinks her fight to play in the women’s division of the United States Open at Forest Hills on September 1 is “all over,” but is going to explore the possibility of a legal injunction against the chromosome sex test the United States Tennis Association is requiring for the first time of ell woman players. “It’s a lousy test anyway," she said. “It’s full of inaccuracies and doesn’t prove a thing. I’ve already passed a gynaecological test. I’m legally a woman." Miss Richards said she

i had been accepted to play ’n the Australian Open in De- • cember and will be allowed I to play as a woman in all i tournaments in southern »California. > Twenty-five of the original i 32 women scheduled to play : in South Orange dropped out ias the Women’s Tennis Association placed pressure • on its members to boycott [ any competition that in- [ eluded Miss Richards. The tournament director : reduced the field to 22 after • the women left. Many of i them opted for a hastily : organised tournament in i Harrison, New York. • NZPA-Reuter reported i that in men’s qualifying matches, Anand Amritraj of ’ India, a semi-finalist in • South Orange two years ago, ’ failed to make the draw [ when he lost in the second round to Alvin Gardiner, of i Australia. 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.