Why It Matters: Saudi Arabia continues to increase its footprint in sports activities.
The feedback from King and Simon had been the strongest sign but that Saudi Arabia is increasing and accelerating its efforts to change into part of not simply males’s tennis but in addition ladies’s, amongst different sports activities like soccer, Formula 1 and golf. The Saudi wealth fund’s LIV Golf circuit just lately agreed to a merger with golf’s PGA Tour after an acrimonious rivalry that included litigation and the lack of a handful of the tour’s largest stars to the upstart league.
Looking to keep away from that situation and always on the hunt for new investors, tennis executives have spoken overtly of their ongoing discussions with Saudi officers about holding tournaments there as quickly as this yr. Saudi Arabia is bidding to change into the host of the Next Gen Finals, a males’s occasion for 21-and-under gamers scheduled for December. Saudi Arabia’s bid contains the choice of holding a ladies’s Next Gen occasion there as properly.
Simon traveled to Riyadh in February with different WTA executives and gamers for conferences with Saudi officers.
Background: Players have expressed concern for his or her security.
The subject is particularly difficult for the ladies’s tennis tour partially as a result of there are a variety of overtly homosexual gamers, together with Daria Kasatkina of Russia, who’s ranked No. 11 on the earth and sometimes travels together with her companion. The males’s tour doesn’t have any gamers who’re overtly homosexual.
Sloane Stephens, a member of the WTA Tour Players’ Council, stated it was vital for L.G.B.T.Q. gamers to really feel secure whereas competing in Saudi Arabia.
“That is part of the evaluation,” Stephens stated. “We want to make sure everyone is safe and comfortable and feels supported.”
King is overtly homosexual as properly, however she cited the WTA’s resolution to play in Doha beginning in 2008 as a precedent for supporting nations who say they wish to change into extra progressive. Simon stated that, throughout his go to to Riyadh, he had seen a few of the similar modifications that Doha had stated it needed to make 15 years in the past when ladies had “zero rights” and there have been considerations about whether or not the gamers can be secure carrying quick, sleeveless tennis outfits.
“It’s about celebrating the betterment of women, that there is change coming,” Simon stated. “I’m not Saying Saudi Arabia is a place we should be doing business with. They have a long way to go, but they are making changes.”
What’s Next: The timetable is unsure.
Simon stated there was no timetable for making a call in regards to the WTA going to Saudi Arabia. However, the tour has but to announce a location for its season-ending Tour Finals. The tour and the Chinese authorities are at present negotiating the way forward for that occasion. The WTA suspended its operations in China for 18 months after player Peng Shuai was seemingly silenced after she appeared to accuse a former prime authorities official of sexually assaulting her and the tour was unable to contact her.
