Barring another last-minute twist, the women’s professional tennis circuit is preparing to announce that the season-ending WTA Tour Finals will be held in Saudi Arabia, marking the latest step in the country’s massive investment in the elite sport.
WTA Tour CEO Steve Simon has been holding talks with Saudi officials for the past year and, if a deal is reached, the 2024 final will be held there at the end of the season, according to several top officials. sports officials. However, the WTA has been here before, as recently as last summer, when it was closed to a deal with Saudi Arabia but pivoted at the last minute amid public pressure.
In a statement Thursday, a WTA spokesperson said the process is ongoing, with the intention of making a final decision and announcing it later this month.
“As everyone knows, we are working on a process to select a venue for the WTA Finals,” they said. “There has been no final decision and we will continue to engage with players during the ongoing process.”
The Athletic Saudi representatives have been contacted for comment.
A senior tennis official, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the WTA, called the potential deal with Saudi Arabia “the worst kept secret in sport.” The WTA is said to have reached the point where it has full confidence in Saudi Arabia’s ability to produce a high-level event, but remains concerned about the secondary criticism that will arise from bringing its flagship event to a country that does not grant the women the same rights. .
The deal for the WTA Finals would represent the latest step in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to become a major destination for international sports. It could also signal the start of the country landing more major tennis events.
Saudi Arabia has been looking to acquire a major tournament since at least mid-2023. While it is unclear if that will happen, several major tennis events are beginning the process of searching for new host sites. Top tennis officials expect Saudi Arabia to be a major player in the process, given its hunger for sporting events and the need among top tennis organizations for new sources of investment.
The International Tennis Federation, which organizes the international team Davis Cup for men and the Billie Jean King Cup for women, will soon begin looking for new venues for the final rounds of those events in the coming years.
The Billie Jean King Cup is in its final year in Seville, Spain. King, who owns 49 percent of the event with his wife and business partner, has already supported the idea of bringing the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia, arguing that engagement with the government is the best way to achieve change. .
In football, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought Premier League team Newcastle United in 2021 and some of football’s biggest names have moved to Saudi Pro League clubs, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Saudi Arabia will also host the 2034 World Cup.
Cristiano Ronaldo joined Saudi club Al Nassr last year (Khalid Alhaj/MB Media/Getty Images)
In golf, Saudi Arabia has pledged to spend $2 billion on a new competition, LIV Golf, which will again attract some of the biggest names in the sport, and the country has become the home of elite boxing in the last years. Formula 1 has held races in the city of Jeddah since 2021 and there has also been considerable Saudi investment in Formula E. You can read more about the Saudi takeover of the sport here.
Saudi Arabia hosted the ATP Tour’s Next Gen Finals, which pit the best young players against each other, in November and exhibition matches between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur the following month.
As the tennis world gathered in Melbourne for the Australian Open two weeks ago, Rafael Nadal announced a deal to become an ambassador for Saudi Arabia’s tennis federation. The move took the tennis establishment by surprise, as Nadal has a well-established reputation for avoiding political controversy.
While Djokovic played the recent exhibition match and expressed support for greater Saudi investment in the sport, he stopped short of seeking a deeper relationship with the country.
Djokovic has endorsed tennis in Saudi Arabia (Wang Haizhou/Xinhua via Getty Images)
For months, there have been discussions between the WTA and the International Tennis Federation about the need to move the tour finals and the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, which is the women’s World Cup of tennis taking place the following week, closer together, and maybe even to the same place. That would make it easier and more likely for the top eight players, who qualify for the elite circuit championship, to play in the international team competition, although it is unclear whether a single market could support both events.
Tennis legend Billie Jean King (Matt McNulty/Getty Images for ITF)
The ATP Tour, which organizes elite men’s tennis, has a deal for its final event with Turin, Italy, expiring in 2025. The ATP and WTA have been working more closely than ever to find ways to grow their operations since the tournaments that have both. men and women are the most popular. The idea of someday circuits combining their end-of-season championships has also been discussed, although not definitively.
The WTA was close to a deal last summer to bring its event to Saudi Arabia as it struggled to find a venue to replace Shenzhen, China, which terminated its 10-year deal with the tour in response to the tour’s decision. to boycott China for 18 months over the country’s refusal to investigate whether a former senior government official sexually assaulted former doubles player Peng Shuai.
The tour balked at the last minute and decided to hold the championship in Cancun, Mexico, for a year amid pushback on social media from two of the biggest names in the sport: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
The former on-court rivals, who are now close friends, renewed their public resistance last week, writing a joint essay in The Washington Post arguing that a deal with Saudi Arabia would represent a step backward for women and women’s sports.
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, united in wanting tennis to stay out of Saudi Arabia (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia has passed a series of reforms in recent years aimed at making women a more substantial part of public life, including allowing them to drive, own businesses and socialize in public with men. But it has maintained other restrictions. Women cannot marry without the permission of a male guardian and must obey their husbands if those men do not want to allow them to exercise the rights that the government has granted them.
Additionally, like other countries in the region, Saudi Arabia criminalizes homosexuality, although that has not stopped the WTA from holding tournaments in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We fully appreciate the importance of respecting diverse cultures and religions,” Evert and Navratilova wrote. “It is because of this, and not in spite of it, that we oppose the most important tournament on the circuit being awarded to Riyadh. “The WTA’s values are in stark contrast to those of the proposed host.”
But unlike last summer, when Saudi Arabia remained largely silent as critics of the plan to host a major tournament there ridiculed the country in the press, Saudi Arabia faced the criticism head-on this week, a move that executives at the tennis saw it as an attempt to cheer up their potential partner.
Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, launched a harsh response to Evert and Navratilova, accusing them of having “turned their backs on the very women they have inspired and it is beyond disappointing.”
Bandar Al Saud criticized Evert, Navratilova and other voices from abroad who label Saudi women as victims and voiceless.
“Perfection cannot be the price of admission,” wrote Bandar Al Saud. “For a tennis tournament or any other space that was once closed and that our women want to enter.”
Unease and resistance to an event in Saudi Arabia have faded among players in recent months. Several top stars, including world number one Iga Swiatek, have noted the difficulties faced by women in the region, but seem resigned to playing there eventually.
“I definitely don’t support the situation there,” US Open champion Coco Gauff said at the Australian Open, “but if we decide to go there, I hope we’re able to make changes and improve the quality and compromise.” in local communities and make a difference.”
(Top photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images)
