With the golf world already divided over Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a powerful force in the game, another major sport is contending with whether to do business with the kingdom.
This time it’s women’s tennis, which pulled out of China last year over concerns for the welfare of a player who accused a Chinese vice premier of sexual assault and later disappeared from sight.
Saudi Arabia has approached the Women’s Tennis Association about hosting an event, possibly the Tour Finals, but the WTA has not entertained the prospect of a tournament there in any formal fashion.
Steve Simon, chief executive of the WTA, declined to be interviewed for this article, but a spokeswoman, Amy Binder, confirmed Saudi Arabia’s interest, saying in a statement, “As a global organization, we are appreciative of inquiries received from anywhere in the world and we look seriously at what each opportunity may bring.”
In recent weeks, professional golf has been upended by the start of the LIV Golf Invitational series, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and is paying $4 million prizes to tournament winners, along with participation fees reportedly as high as $200 million. Players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson who have left the PGA Tour and joined LIV Golf have been accused by other players of helping the kingdom to “sportswash” its human rights abuses, among them the 2018 government-sponsored killing of the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia’s interest in tennis was first reported by The Telegraph in Britain.
As part of its larger effort to project a new image worldwide, the kingdom has made significant investments in sports and cultural events in recent years. The women’s tennis tour would be likely to face questions if it staged events in Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights have been curtailed and women gained the right to drive only in 2018. (Saudi Arabia has staged professional women’s golf events, hosting official Ladies European Tour stops each of the last three years.)
Simon demanded an investigation into the allegations of Peng Shuai, a veteran Chinese player. Peng eventually reappeared, but when Chinese authorities did not allow Peng to meet independently with Simon and the WTA, Simon suspended all of the tour’s business in China, including its 10-year deal to hold the Tour Finals in Shenzen.
It was a major financial blow for the WTA. In 2019, China paid a record $14million in prize money, the first year of the agreement. This was more than double the amount of prize cash paid to the WTA Finals in 2018, which concluded its five-year tenure in Singapore. The WTA moved last year’s finals to Guadalajara (Mexico), which offered $5 million in prize cash and a significantly reduced fee for the right to host.
WTA leaders are yet to announce the WTA Finals host for 2022. This is despite the Shenzhen deal being extended for a longer period.
Saudi Arabia, with its huge appetite for international sport, and financial resources, is a potential bidder.
“They are interested in women’s sports, and they are interested in big events, so for sure,” said the Austrian businessman and tennis tournament promoter Peter-Michael Reichel.
Since years, events have been held in Arab countries by the WTA, including Dubai and Qatar. But Saudi Arabia has yet to secure an official tour event in men’s or women’s tennis despite making increasingly serious offers.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic were due to play an exhibition at the venue in December 2018. However, they were pressured to cancel the event after Khashoggi’s assassination at the Saudi consulate Istanbul in October 2018. Nadal was unable to play due to a foot injury.
A year later, an eight-man tennis exhibition was played in Riyadh in December 2019 ahead of the start of the regular men’s tennis season. The Diriyah Tennis Cup featured the top ATP players Daniil Medvedev from Russia, Stan Wawrinka from Switzerland and John Isner from the United States. It was played in a temporary stadium of 15,000 seats. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the Saudi General Sports Authority, called hosting the event “another watershed moment for the kingdom” and hit the ceremonial first serve.
Reichel was responsible for organizing the 2019 exhibition through RBG. He said the exhibition had to be canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic but that the plan was to revive the event later this year and include a women’s exhibition tournament.
“I’m very optimistic we can develop the tennis business there,” Reichel said in a telephone interview from London on Thursday.
Reichel said he believes it’s appropriate for sports to do business with Saudi Arabia, which he said has advanced as a society since he first went there on business in 1983.
“I was so positively surprised,” he said. “I was there many times. The international image is focused on Khashoggi’s assassination and the women’s driving licenses. This is what people know, and there is much more to be reported, I think.”
Reichel’s company owns and operates the WTA tournament in Linz, Austria, and the ATP tournament in Hamburg, Germany. He is a member the WTA board and lobbyist for Saudi Arabia to host an official tour event. These efforts have not succeeded for now. Recently, the ATP rejected a proposal by Reichel to relocate an event to Saudi Arabia.
A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf Series
A new series. The new Saudi-financed, controversy-trailed LIV Golf series held its first event in June. But what is it? It is played by who? What’s all the hubbub, and how can you watch it? Here’s what to know:
“Hopefully we can achieve it next year,” Reichel said.
One former WTA board member, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the board, said, “I think the WTA are being polite in recognizing the Saudi interest but from there to accept and go that direction, I don’t see it happening for a lot of reasons.”
Reichel acknowledged that some board members are resisting the idea of holding a women’s event in the kingdom because of the political sensitivities.
“They think with not going to China, we cannot go to Saudi,” he said. “I do not want to see this comparison, because China is a very specific thing with sexual assault for one of our players, and Saudi is a market which is opening up for women and trying to support women, which is a good sign. But I’m in the middle of these discussions with our tour, and I’m not sure we can achieve it in ’23, but in ’24 we’ll see.”
Reichel declined to comment when asked if the Saudis were trying to bid for this year’s WTA Tour Finals.
It is unclear what the Saudis might do in tennis if they are unable to secure an official tour event. They might consider creating a LIV Golf equivalent to poach superstar players.
Ari Fleischer is a former President George W. Bush’s communications consultant who said earlier this week that he didn’t know of any attempt to create a new tour for tennis.
Reichel stated that he had not seen any indications that a new tour was in the works. He said that he expected Saudi Arabia and the tennis tours to collaborate to stage events.
“But if the tours are not willing to work together then I don’t know,” he said. Referring to the Saudis, he added, “For sure they have the money to make everything happen.”
Cindy ShmerlerContributed reporting
Source: NY Times
