Vahalyshares with Jon Wertheimon his latest Sports Illustrated "Beyond the Baseline" podcast about his coming-out experience:
"It wasn't until after I had left the game that I really had to come full circle with myself and understand who I am as a person, where am I going, am I happy, and I had to come to terms with some things about my sexuality, and that was not easy—especially coming from a sports background."
The 37-year-old came out "a year or two" after his pro tennis career ended, and remarks now that he didn't want to be tagged as a gay athlete at the time of his pro playing days. Beyond that, he had some figuring out to do, and was simply very busy.
"You recognize what a short window competition is," Vahaly says.
A rotator cuff injury sidelined Vahaly from his tennis career. Like fellow retired pros Amer Delic and Mario Ancic, Vahaly is now in the finance business—a venture capitalist, to be specific.
Vahaly's take these days is that he wasn't prepared to be a pioneer or an advocate for the LGBT community. He had a girlfriend while he played ATP ball, and "didn't want to attach that ['gay'] adjective as the first adjective when people thought about me."
I recently asked a pair of top ATP players whether the tour today features anyone who is, even rather privately, gay. They said that they honestly didn't know of anyone.
Still, the retired Vahaly has this to say to Wertheim about the hypothetical of an out, active player on the ATP these days:
"I think it would be a much more welcoming environment than it was perhaps in the early 2000s."
Here's hoping. And that's exactly what Vahaly's life story inspires for a good many peers in their 30s and youngsters alike: hope.
Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.
