WTA founder Billie Jean King is certain the women’s and men’s tennis tours will soon be doing business with Saudi Arabia and the American legend believes the move can have a positive impact on both the sport and the kingdom.
Steve Simon, the president of the WTA, visited Riyadh along with a couple of players and board representatives back in February and said the tour is still evaluating the possibility of staging tournaments in Saudi Arabia, or conducting other business there.
King, a fierce advocate for women’s sport and gender equality, says she is a strong believer in engagement, and that she would be keen to go to Saudi Arabia and see for herself the progress happening there on the ground.
“I’m sure they [the tours] will [go to Saudi Arabia]. I think they will,” King told The National at the WTA’s 50th-anniversary celebration at the Gloucester hotel in London on Friday.
“There’s a lot of money, which is very important to keep having money to help the players, but also help run the WTA, run the ATP and all that.
“I think the only way people change is engagement. If you don’t meet people and you don’t discuss and you don’t ask for new things to happen, they don’t. So it’s really important that we help the change to make things more equal for everyone. I’m huge on engagement.”
‘To see it is to be it’
When King founded the Women’s Tennis Association 50 years ago, one of the core principles was to give any girl or woman tennis player who was good enough the opportunity to compete.
The 12-time Grand Slam champion says it’s important for young girls to get exposed to the sport at the highest level and that going to Saudi Arabia can provide inspiration for the next generation there.
“To see it, is to be it. So when we go to a country and play a tournament, just think, if you’re a little girl, or a parent, that they get to see these women being very successful and great athletes, and it helps change the hearts and minds of people and how they think,” added the 79-year-old King.
“I know when I played Bobby Riggs [in the Battle of the Sexes] for instance, 50 years ago in 1973, by beating Bobby it changed the hearts and minds of the men, more than women. And I cannot tell you how many men have come up to me and said, ‘I never thought about my daughter that much, but I do now, and I want her to have as much as my son. And I never would have thought about it if I hadn’t watched that match’.
“So you never know how when we go to other countries, how we’re going to affect them. You might only affect one person in the stands, but that person ends up being a leader of the country or a great athlete or a CEO or someone who changes the world. So you never know how you’re affecting others. But to see it, is to be it.”
Lots of frontiers to conquer
The WTA held its first tournament in the Middle East in Cairo in 1999 but it was only staged for one year before getting scrapped. In 2001, Dubai and Doha launched women’s tennis events, and on the opposite side of the Arab region, a WTA tournament came to life in Casablanca, Morocco in North Africa (it has since moved to Fez, Marrakesh and now Rabat).
Doha hosted the year-end WTA Finals between 2008 and 2010 and more recently, two new women’s tournaments have popped up in the MENA region – one in Monastir, Tunisia, in 2022 and one in Abu Dhabi last February.
“I think it’s really important for us to go to as many countries as possible,” said King. “And when we formed the WTA in ’73 here at the Gloucester [hotel in London], the one thing I brought up all the time was ‘five continents’. We have to have people from all continents on our board, and we did. We made a real effort. We wanted everyone to realise it was a global sport.
“It may have started in the United States, but that was never the dream. The dream is to be worldwide and we have a lot of new frontiers to conquer. We have the Middle East, we have Africa, we have a lot of places we still need to go and be a part of them and them to be a part of us.”
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said he had “positive” discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and other potential investors to support infrastructure, technology, and events in new markets.
The PIF has already struck a shock partnership deal with the PGA Tour and European Tour following a power struggle that threatened to divide the golf landscape. It also reportedly explored a bid last year to acquire Formula 1 from owner Liberty Media. It has helped lure the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to football teams in the Saudi Pro League and also holds a majority stake in Premier League club Newcastle United.
‘Transformational’ progress
Simon has not revealed the extent of his discussions with Saudi Arabia, and there are no imminent plans to stage a tournament there or enter into a partnership with the PIF or other investors in the kingdom. But he seemed impressed by the progress being made during the time he spent in Riyadh in February.
“We wanted to see what the change was. The advancement for women’s rights and where they’ve come from is transformational right now, as far as what they’re doing in the space and they still have a long way to go, but they’re making huge strides,” Simon said during the WTA’s 50-year anniversary event on Friday.
“They are making significant changes. Where they were five years ago and where they are today with respect to women’s rights and the issues is significant. We spent time in Riyadh, downtown, if you go through the financial district, the downtown district in Riyadh, you would think you were in New York City, or another progressive Middle East city like Dubai.
“I think where we are right now is we’ve had conversations and we’ll continue to have conversations.
“I think what Billie said is right. It’s about engagement, it’s about learning the situation and sometimes when you’re in the position such as that we’re in, you need to support the change, they need to make the change but how can we work with them to support this change and keep pushing it further?”
While Simon acknowledges a lot of work has been done within the WTA to achieve equal rights and equal compensation for women in the sport, he admits the gender pay gap still exists and significant investments need to be made in order to erase that disparity.
The WTA tour announced earlier this week a pathway towards equal prize money at combined events by 2027 and non-combined events by 2033.
“We’re seeing it from the economics of sport, for all women’s sports, that they deal with, and the difference between men and women,” said Simon. “We’ll have to decide how do you take it on and involve them [Saudi Arabia], because you want them to do what they’re talking about right now and advance the opportunity for women in the country, make it better, and you need to support that, you can’t walk away from it.”
‘Supporting the betterment of women’
Simon cited Doha as an example where, initially, when the tour made plans to stage an event there, there was concern over the players competing in their regular tennis outfits.
“They were in a situation where they were trying to make change, and part of this was being able to feature professional women’s tennis at the highest level in their sport to foster and support the change that they wanted to make,” said Simon, reflecting on Qatar.
“They’re involved in the full environment, they have women professionals in medicine, engineering, retail, every place that you want to look at. Now our tournament is actually celebrated there and they can’t wait for them to come back each year. So it is about supporting the betterment of women and creating a message that’s coming in, that there is change coming and we’re a part of it.”
Protecting the integrity of tennis
World No2 Novak Djokovic said on Saturday at Wimbledon that it “was just a question of time” before Saudi Arabia expressed interest in tennis, following on from the trend of investing in golf, Formula 1, football and other sports.
“I think from that example [golf] we can probably learn a lot, some positives, some negatives, and try to structure a deal if it's going in that direction in a proper way that is going to protect the integrity and tradition and history of this sport, but still be able to grow it in such way that it will be appropriate,” said the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
WTA No1 Iga Swiatek said she was not clued on the latest developments but will “be ready to play wherever the WTA decides we're going to play”.
WTA Player Council member and world No4 Jessica Pegula noted how going into business with Saudi Arabia could help the women’s tour achieve the pathway to equal prize money they recently announced.
“I trust Steve obviously to make the right decision on what he feels is best for the WTA. I think we all do on the Council,” said Pegula.
“I'm sure we'll talk and go about it. Especially, if they could help getting us to equal prize money. I think there's a lot of positives that can come out of it as well.
“Hopefully something good comes out of it the right way.”
