Tag: WTA Finals

Saudi Arabia will hold the WTA Finals for the next three years. The prize money for this year’s championship has increased to a record $15. 25 million, which is 70% more than last year.

From 2024 to 2026, a tennis tournament for the best eight singles players and the best eight doubles teams will take place in Riyadh. The kingdom has been investing a lot in tennis and other sports, even though some people have concerns about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights there. Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and others have raised these concerns.

“We know that people have strong opinions about Saudi’s investment in sports, and we are aware of this as we move forward,” said WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Steve Simon in an interview with The Associated Press. “We talked to Chris and Martina, and we heard what they were worried about. We also told our stakeholders about their concerns without being biased. ” We have also talked about the issues about women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights in Saudi Arabia. We are working to make women’s tennis better for everyone who plays and supports the game. The truth is. We are a world-wide tour company, doing business all over the world. We now have players from more than 90 countries. We have more than 90 events. Please simplify this text. We work with a lot of countries that have different cultures and beliefs.

Simon said that we are not trying to convince anyone to have concerns about Saudi Arabia. The players can choose for themselves, and we think that everyone who is able will want to play.

Possible new places in Europe, North America, and Asia were being looked at for the WTA Finals. The tournament has been in five different cities in the past five years. This is because an agreement to have the tournament in Shenzhen, China until 2030 was changed due to the coronavirus pandemic and worries about the safety of retired Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai, who accused a Chinese government official of rape.

The cities for the 2022 (Fort Worth, Texas) and 2023 (Cancun, Mexico) tournaments were not announced until September each year. The tournament that took place last November was heavily criticized by players. Iga Swiatek, who has won four big tennis tournaments, beat Jessica Pegula in the final match last year. Coco Gauff, who won the US Open, and Aryna Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open, also played in the tournament.

Simon mentioned that Riyadh was chosen by the WTA in late December, but they have just finished finalizing the agreement details.

Simon said that this partnership will help us learn more about a market and a region that is becoming more and more important in the sports industry. “We think there will be more events happening there in the future. ” In the end, we think that the WTA should be involved in this progress, instead of being left out.

Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) created the LIV Golf tour and invested in soccer. The kingdom’s involvement in tennis has also been increasing. The ATP Tour moved its tournament for young players to Jedda in November. The PIF is the main sponsor for the men’s rankings. Rafael Nadal is now working with the Saudi Tennis Federation. He will play in an event in Riyadh in October with Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Jannik Sinner. People have been talking about having a really important tennis tournament in Saudi Arabia. This would be part of a bigger plan to make changes with the WTA, ATP, and the country.

Women still experience unfair treatment in their families, and being homosexual is not accepted in many parts of the Middle East.

Recently, Saudi Arabia has made many big changes to its society. Women can now drive and they have more control over their own lives, instead of being controlled by male relatives. Men and women still have to dress nicely, but the rules are not as strict as they used to be, and the religious police are not as powerful as before. However, gay relationships are still against the law and can be punished by death or beating, even though not many people are prosecuted for it.

Evert and Navratilova wrote in The Washington Post that they think the WTA should not hold its Finals in Saudi Arabia because it would be a step backwards, and they questioned if it would just be a way for players to make money without considering the human rights issues in the country.

In reply, the Saudi Arabia ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, said the two former athletes used old-fashioned ideas and focused only on Western views of our culture. She also said they ignored the women they had inspired, which is very disappointing.

The ambassador and the head of the Saudi Tennis Federation talked to female WTA athletes in a video call about the changes happening and what still needs to be done in the region.

The WTA announced that the prize money for the Finals will help them keep their promise to increase pay and make it more equal to what men make in tennis. Nov has 15. 25 million US dollars to give. In 2024, the amount for the event will increase in 2025 and 2026. It is higher than last year’s $9 million and more than the highest amount of $14 million at the Shenzhen event in 2019.