Top Women’s Tennis Stars ‘Happy’ To Play WTA Finals In Saudi Arabia

The Women’s Tennis Association has yet to announce where this year’s WTA Finals will be held — which world No. 1 Iga Swiatek finds “annoying” — but several other top stars said they would be happy to play the event in Saudi Arabia if that’s where it lands.

“I always love playing in the WTA Finals,” world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus said ahead of the U.S. Open.

“Whatever decision they’re going to make, I’m happy to go…wherever.”

Jessica Pegula, the top-ranked American and world No. 3, said the pros of playing in Saudi Arabia would have to outweigh the cons. The Saudis have been increasing their global reach in recent years despite accusations of attempting to “sportswash” their human rights record.

“We’d obviously have to see there be a lot of pros overweighing the cons to feel comfortable going there, whether that’s seeing them as a group, maybe have to donate money to women’s sports or women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, to see some sort of change or action going towards helping those causes in their country,” said Pegula, whose family owns the Buffalo Bills and Sabres. “I think that would be something really important that, if we did end up going there, we would want to see.”

She added: “I think it’s just going to have to be the right arrangement and we’re going to have to know if we go there, okay, well, we want to be making a change, and you need to help us do that.

“If that was the case, I think unfortunately a lot of places don’t pay women a lot of money, and it’s unfortunate that a lot of women’s sports, like we don’t have the luxury to say no to some things.”

World No. 5 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the sports most prominent Arab player, was more enthusiastic about potentially playing in Saudi Arabia.

“You know, as an Arab player, I’m very excited to be there,” she said. “I am someone pushing for a change, pushing to give more and more opportunities especially for women. I know in Saudi they’re changing things and they’re evolving.

“I’ve been there last year to give a speech and interview there. It was very nice meeting a lot of amazing womans there. For me, I was trying to push to have something, tennis, there in Saudi.

“I think it’s a great step. I think it’s something that could help the Arab world to have more tennis players, to get more involved in sports.”

The end-of-season tournament features the eight highest-ranked players on the WTA Tour competing in a round-robin format with the top two players from each group advancing to the knockout stages. Last year, France’s Caroline Garcia won the biggest title of her career at the event and earned $1.57M in prize money when it was held in Fort Worth, Texas. It was the third year in a row that the WTA Finals had been played at a different venue.

The WTA in 2018 announced a 10-year deal to hold the WTA Finals in Shenzen, China beginning in 2019. But in December 2021 the organization decided to suspend all of its tournaments in China over concerns that authorities were censoring former world No.1 Peng Shuai, who made allegations of sexual assault against a former government official. The WTA this year opted to end its boycott but has not officially announced where the WTA Finals will be held.

“It would be great, yeah, if the decision were made earlier,” said Swiatek, the world No. 1 and defending U.S. Open champion. “Especially when we were in Fort Worth, they kind of assured us the decision is going to be made at the beginning of the year. It is a little bit annoying, but as players there’s nothing we can do, because it’s all about business and negotiations that WTA has, so we kind of have to wait.”

Coco Gauff, the No. 2-ranked American and a contender to win her first major at the Open, said she wanted to withhold comment until an official announcement was made.

The ATP announced this week that its NextGen Finals would be played in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 2023-27.

“The ATP Tour is truly global and exploring new markets is central to growing the game,” ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement. “Bringing the Next Gen ATP Finals to Jeddah is our chance to inspire new fans, in a region with a vast young population, and unite audiences around tennis. Our congratulations go to Jeddah and the Saudi Tennis Federation. We look forward to building on the event’s incredible success together.”

ESPN analysts John McEnroe and Chrissie Evert both said they weren’t fans of tennis doing business with the Saudis.

“I would prefer not to go to Saudi Arabia to play the WTA Finals,” Evert said this week on an ESPN conference call. “Not that I’m going to go play, but for me, I would prefer the WTA not go to Saudi Arabia. Obviously they have the human rights issues and everything, just the way they treat women. I would be against it. But I don’t have a vote.”

Said McEnroe: “I think a lot of the people – I’ll preface this by saying – are hypocrites that sit around and say that golf or tennis shouldn’t go there while tons of businesses and tons of these people that you know about, including our government and many, many others go there and do business, but all of a sudden it’s outrageous that sports athletes do it.

“Having said that, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think our sport needs it. I don’t think it would benefit from it, and I don’t think we should do it, personally. “