The WTA Finals, seen because the fifth main in ladies’s tennis, will probably be held in Saudi Arabia for the subsequent three years.
The season-ending match that includes the highest eight gamers on the planet will supply file prize cash of £12m, with additional will increase in 2025 and 2026.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly held an curiosity in internet hosting the WTA’s flagship occasion for a number of months, with legends of the game in Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert amongst those that have criticised the partnership.
In an editorial for the Washington Publish, Navratilova stated Saudi Arabia staging the WTA Finals could be a “step backward” for ladies and girls’s tennis.
Ladies’s rights are restricted in Saudi Arabia and same-sex relations are in opposition to the regulation. The state has been accused of human rights violations by teams akin to Amnesty Worldwide.
Saudi Arabia has additionally been accused of concentrating on main sports activities akin to boxing, soccer and golf to “sportswash” its worldwide status.
Whereas the deal to safe the WTA Finals is the state’s newest transfer in buying a serious sporting occasion, earlier efforts have targeted on males’s sports activities.
Ladies’s tennis options a few of the most distinguished and extremely paid ladies’s athletes on the planet and Saudi Arabia’s transfer to host the WTA Finals represents its first important deal but in ladies’s sport.
The WTA Finals have been staged in Cancun, Mexico in November final yr however the match was closely criticised by the gamers, and led to Saudi Arabia shifting into pole place to host the match.
Saudi Arabia are providing a 70 per cent improve on prize cash, and it follows elevated efforts to host males’s tennis within the nation. The ATP has moved its Subsequent Gen Finals to Jeddah, whereas Saudi Arabia’s Personal Funding Fund has signed a sponsorship take care of the ATP.
Steve Simon, the WTA Tour chairman and CEO, informed the Related Press that the organisation had met with Navratilova and Evert and stated he “shared their issues”.
“We’ve additionally shared the issues round ladies’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights inside the Kingdom of Saudi,” he stated. “Our focus is on how we develop ladies’s tennis for the good thing about everyone concerned within the recreation.
The fact of it’s we’re really a worldwide tour, a worldwide enterprise. We’ve got gamers from over 90 nations now. We’ve got over 90 occasions. We take part in lots of nations which have totally different cultures and values methods throughout the board.”