The WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia: An Opportunity or a Controversy?

He spent time before Judy Murray was convinced that going to Saudi Arabia was the right decision. Murray, a professional trainer and mother of a former number 1 of the world, Andy, and his brother -specialist in doubles, Jamie, is a well -known lawyer for women’s rights and sports.

But as a community ambassador for the Women’s Tennis Association, Murray’s work is to travel to We We Tour Ve and the introduction of tennis to those who have had a limited exposure. Then he will go to Riad, Saudi Arabia, for the WTA finals, which begins on Saturday.

“We have a great opportunity for some great things to happen there,” Murray Duration said a video call last month. “It is a bit of a white canvas, and many of the things at the base level are starting from scratch. We are creating relationships, and once you do you can make things happen.”

The WTA finals are the culmination of the one year’s WTA tour and involve the eight best individual players and the eight best double teams. The individual competitors of this year are Aryna Sabalenka, IgA Swiatek, Coco Gautf, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, Zheng Qinwen and Barbora Krejcikova.

Sabalenka, who resumed Swiatek’s ranking No. 1 two weeks ago, enters like the best seed. Paolini, who is paired in doubles with Sara Errani, is the only player admitted to singles and doubles.

A $ 15 million record is being sacrificed in prizes, part of a three -year contract to organize the event in Riyadh. The champion, in case it is undefeated in the portion of Round-Robin of the event, will cover $ 5,155 million, the highest bag for a male or female tour event.

Even before it was announced earlier this year that the finals would be in Saudi Arabia, there was some dissension over the location. Saudi Arabia was criticized, even by the Biden administration, after the murder in 2018 of the Saudi journalist based in the United States, Jamal Khashoggi, within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the country has a woman of tight. Then, celebrating the WTA season event, has worried some.

None of the qualifiers for the finals have refused to participate, but the former number 1 of the world Martina Navratilova, who won the finals eight times, has opposed to celebrate the event in Saudi Arabia from the beginning.

“We resolve our moral terrain when the women decided to go there,” said Novratilova on the phone last month. “First you must show me some progress. Women must be equal citizens under the law. Otherwise, we could also play in North Korea.”

Billie Jean King, a founder of the WTA, however, has long been a defender of the Riyadh final, citing the value of bringing changes to the region. Others agree.

“His first instinct is that he goes against everything we defend and believe,” said Mary Joe Fernández, former world number 4 and the current ESPN station, in an interview in September. “But when some like Billie Jean, who represents equality and justice, is open to it, I have to step back and say:” Ok, maybe it’s fine. “

Katrina Adams, another former professional and an executive director of the United States Tennis Association, also sees the positive side.

“We are bringing the best professional athletes who live their lives differently from women in Saudi,” Adams said on the phone last month. “What does that mean to Saudi Arabia? They have to be willing to make these women feel welcome. That is already a creator of changes.”

When the agreement was announced with the WTA, Mohamed Alsayyad, head of the corporate brand of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, “we hope to work in the WTA to increase participation and inspire the next generation of talent.”

The tournament has fought in the last five years while bouncing in places. After an agreement with Shenzhen, China, in 2019, the winner, Ashleight Barty, more than $ 4 million, the agreement ended when Covid began. In the last two years, there are last minute agreements to organize the event in Fort Worth, where the size of the crowds was mixed, and then last year in Cancun, Mexico, where a tropical storm left the stage of the stadium in large part unpleasant.

The WTA agreement with Saudi Arabia is one of the various attempts in the investment fund to have an impact on professional tennis as it has done with golf, with the creation of the LIV Golf Tour.

The Newgen of ATP finals, for players under 21, will be held in Jeddah in mid -December. The Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riad last month presented Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune competing for three days for a first prize of $ 6 million. Each of the competitors received at least $ 1 million for appearing.

The Saudi fund also sponsored the classifications for the ATP and the WTA. And the Fund and the ATP have made a blow to begin a joint sponsorship agreement with Tommy Paul and Matteo Berrettini and the eight times greater Andre Agassi by appointing them ambassadors of the Saudi Tennis Federation. Paul’s contract was a drain when he said in a documentary earlier this year that he drinks the night before his doubles match at the 2017 Open. “He couldn’t even see,” he said in the movie.

In exchange for several personal appearances, Agassi would be paid up or $ 1 million annually, an agreement that rejected in support of Paul. Nadal has faced a recent reaction to accept becoming an ambassador this year. Nadal also plans to open a branch or its tennis academy in Saudi Arabia.

Those who support Saudi participation in sport point to Arij Mutabagani, the woman president of the Saudi Tennis Federation, as an example of the progressive changes that take place. Others recognize that the influx of hundreds of millions of dollars in Saudi money can help the smaller rank players already the WTA organization, which has had financial problems in recent years.

“There could be an advantage in this,” said John Tobias or Gse Worldwide, who repeats many high -ranking players. “Yes, the best players want money, but the people who really need it are WTA who support people who are in danger of losing their jobs. This event supports the entire tour.”

Portia Archer became the executive director of the WTA in July, so she was not part of the decision to celebrate the finals in Riad. But after investigating a little, he has adopted the plan.

“Sometimes it is good to participate,” he said in a video call last month. “When you are abroad, look, it is easy to point out your finger and talk about what you can and you can’t do, what you should. It is much more difficult to be able to make the change. Sometimes you can do the purpose. The purpose is and stay focused on that.”

The goal of Murray in Riad is to teach tennis and grow the sport. The biggest problem is that in Saudi Arabia, only women can teach women and girls. She hopes that being on the ground for the next three years, progress will occur.

“Sport has opened to women in the past,” Murray said. “With the commitment of the community, the key to making tennis stay there is to invest in their own people and build a workforce, particularly a female workforce, to make more and active girls. The greatest impact we can have is that the competent and own people of the people dream of people who excel to the people who stand out the people outstanding that people outstand people to see the people’s people.