[
Linked Image]
A tennis player born with both male and female genitalia has been cleared to compete as a woman.
Sarah Gronert is free to face the world's best players after the sport's governing body ruled there was 'sufficient independent and verifiable evidence' she was eligible to play women's tennis.
The 22-year-old, who had her male genitalia removed three years ago, had to have 'gender verification to determine sexual status' under Women's Tennis Association rules.
The German, currently ranked 555th in the world, has caused anger among players and coaches who claim she has an unfair advantage. She had threatened to quit over the controversy.
'There is no girl who can hit serves like that, not even Venus Williams,' said Schlomo Tzoref, coach of Julia Glushko, who recently lost to Gronert. 'When I heard her story, I was in shock.
'I don't know if it's fair that she can compete or not. She does have an advantage but, if this is what the WTA have decided, they probably know best.'
But Gronert suffered a setback this week when she was knocked out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, in Germany, in the second qualifying round, by Alberta Brianti. Tennis has been rocked by several gender rows in the past.
Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskin, was the first transsexual in professional tennis and played on the women's tour in the 1970s.
She reached a world ranking high of No.22 in 1977 but her entry into professional tennis was not easy.
The women's tour initially refused to let her compete after her sex change in 1975.
The New York supreme court overturned the decision two years later and Richards went on to win a tournament.
Meanwhile, Chilean transsexual tennis player Andrea Paredes von Roth, 37, was this week knocked out of the Futures tournament in Buenos Aires by Briton Nicola Slater.
Ms Paredes, born Ernesto Paredes, had a sex-change operation in 2000.
