The WTA Finals will be held in Riyadh

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has announced the move of its final tournament to the Saudi capital of Riyadh, where it will be held until at least 2026. According to the contract between the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation, the prize fund for the competition, in which the top eight singles and doubles players each take part, will reach a record $15.25 million this season. This deal confirms the expansion of Saudi expansion in professional tennis, which, will most likely continue in the near future.

The move of the final WTA tournament to Riyadh became known from messages on the official website of the organization. It said the contract between the WTA and the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation concluded a months-long process of reviewing numerous bids for the WTA Finals from across continents and engaging with leading players on the matter.

The key criteria that the WTA used in reviewing these applications were “the ability to host and fund a world-class event for players and fans”, “support the WTA’s aspirations for significant growth in prize money” and “seriousness in the development of the final tournament and tennis in general.”

Other details of the choice of venue for the WTA Finals are not provided, although it is known that in recent months Riyadh was de facto considered the only real contender for organizing the tournament, which in November last year, partly due to severe weather conditions, was handled extremely poorly by the Mexican Cancun.

“Hosting the WTA Finals in Riyadh is a new opportunity and a positive step for the long-term development of women’s tennis as a global and inclusive sport,” said WTA Chief Executive Steve Simon. “We are impressed by the Saudi Tennis Federation’s commitment to developing it at all levels.”

The world’s top tennis players, including WTA ranking leader Iga Swiatek, have recently spoken generally positively about the prospect of the WTA Finals returning to the Arabian Peninsula (the tournament was held in Qatar from 2008 to 2010).

True, the key factor in this case should be considered not the opinion of tennis players, but the long-standing Saudi expansion in professional tennis, including the latest initiative of the Saudi Investment Fund (PIF) to merge the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the WTA. Let us remind you that the validity period of this proposal, which implies $2 billion of investment, is short – only 90 days – and a decision on it, as Kommersant has already reported, can be made at the annual meeting of representatives of the ATP and WTA tournaments at the end of April.

In this situation, several influential figures in women’s tennis, who publicly spoke out against the option with Riyadh, could no longer prevent the WTA from concluding a deal with the Saudis, although, according to the executive director of the WTA commercial division, Marina Storey, with the former first racket of the world, American Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, separate “explanatory conversations” were held. Be that as it may, the new agreement involves holding this year’s final tournament in the first week of November, a sharp increase in its prize pool – from $9 million to $15.25 million, and further increases over the next two years. Thus, the record – $14 million in prize money at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China in 2019 – will be broken this season.

“Based on the general context of the situation in world tennis, the decision to hold the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia is logical and has long been expected,” says Vice-President of the Russian Tennis Federation Alexey Selivanenko. “As for the three-year contract period, it is probably linked to internal processes , including the terms of the sale of media rights to cover the tournament, as well as the PIF offer made to both tours, which is likely to be accepted in one form or another.”

The WTA Finals roster is usually fully formed in mid-October. Of the Russian tennis players, Anna Kalinskaya, who is ninth in points scored since the beginning of January, currently has the best chance of a place in the top eight at the end of the season. Let us remember that last season only one Russian woman took part in the WTA Finals – 39-year-old Vera Zvonareva, who won a sensational victory in tandem with German Laura Siegemund. A year earlier, in the American Fort Worth, Daria Kasatkina was among the singles players, and Veronika Kudermetova, who played with the Belgian Elise Mertens, became the champion in pairs.

Evgeniy Fedyakov