{"id":815720,"date":"2026-07-21T05:41:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815720\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T05:41:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:41:29","slug":"player-who-quit-tennis-over-racist-culture-wins-first-title-after-switching-nationality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815720\/","title":{"rendered":"Player who quit tennis over &#8216;racist&#8217; culture wins first title after switching nationality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"http:\/\/tennisuptodate.com\/destanee-aiava\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Destanee Aiava<\/a> has completed one of the most unexpected turnarounds in tennis this season. Just months after <a href=\"https:\/\/tennisuptodate.com\/wta\/tennis-was-my-toxic-boyfriend-destanee-aiava-retires-to-escape-racist-and-mysoginist-environment-in-professional-tennis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcing her retirement<\/a> and describing professional tennis as a damaging environment, the former Australian player has returned to competition, changed sporting nationality and now captured her first professional title representing New Zealand.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The 26-year-old won the W15 Brisbane title without dropping a set, defeating Australia\u2019s Belle Thompson 6-2, 6-3 in the final to claim the first trophy of her comeback. The victory marks a new chapter for a player whose future in tennis appeared uncertain only a few months ago.    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Aiava\u2019s journey through 2026 has been anything but conventional. After failing to qualify for the Australian Open singles main draw and losing in the first round of the women\u2019s doubles event, she announced in February that she planned to retire at the end of the season, <a href=\"https:\/\/tennisuptodate.com\/wta\/tennis-was-my-toxic-boyfriend-destanee-aiava-retires-to-escape-racist-and-mysoginist-environment-in-professional-tennis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criticising<\/a> what she described as a \u201cracist, misogynistic, homophobic and hostile\u201d culture within the sport.     <\/p>\n<p>\n            However, her retirement did not last long. In March, Aiava revealed that she had reversed her decision and would continue playing beyond 2026. Four months later, she announced another major change: switching her sporting allegiance from Australia to New Zealand as she looked for a fresh start in her career.    <\/p>\n<p>From retirement announcement to unexpected comeback<\/p>\n<p>\n            Aiava\u2019s initial retirement announcement became one of the most discussed moments in tennis this year. The former Australian described tennis as her \u201ctoxic boyfriend\u201d, saying that behind the sport\u2019s traditional image were experiences that had deeply affected her throughout her career.     <\/p>\n<p>\n            The decision came after years of highs and frustrations. Aiava was once considered one of Australia\u2019s most promising young talents, making her Grand Slam debut at the 2017 Australian Open at just 16 years old. She later became the first player born in 2000 or later to compete in a Grand Slam main draw and reached a career-high ranking of No. 147 in 2017.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Destanee Aiava has completed one of the most unexpected turnarounds in tennis this season. Just months after announcing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-815720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}