WTA Finals in 'significant regression' as Saudis put up huge money for players

The WTA Finals started in Saudi Arabia yesterday offering a record prize fund of £11.5million ($15m) - and a harsh lesson in the realities of staging modern top-class sporting events.

The season-ending event will begin with the clash between new world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen. Iga Swiatek will bid to return to the top of the rankings in her first appearance since the US Open and Elena Rybakina has hired Goran Ivanisevic as her new coach.

But the biggest story is the first staging of a first Tour-level event in the Kingdom which has already invested - or sportwashed - in LIV Golf, boxing, Formula One, Newcastle United and Cristiano Ronaldo.

And the nation with a history of suppressing women's rights is happily bankrolling the biggest female tennis event outside of the Majors.

Back in January, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova wrote an opinion piece for theThe Washington Post headlined: "We did not help build women's tennis for it to be exploited by Saudi Arabia". They claimed that staging the event there would "represent not progress, but significant regression" for the sport.

Yet since the announcement of a lucrative three-year deal in April - and in the build-up to the event - there has been no vocal opposition from within the sport. Billie Jean King and Ons Jabeur have spoken up in support - and WTA community ambassador Judy Murray has held coaching clinics there in the build-up to the event.

Tournament organiser and 2021 winner Garbine Muguruza this week claimed: "I only have heard positive things and we're here. I mean it's a new country for us. It's a new market that is being very welcoming to us."

Women's tennis has learned the hard way that principles cost money. The WTA's 18-month boycott of China over Peng Shuai ended with the admission that it had achieved nothing except costing tennis and the players millions of dollars.

China then still ripped up its 10-year deal to stage the WTA Finals in Shenzhen - and the last three events have been ad hoc events in Guadalajara, Fort Worth and last year's disaster in Cancun.

And Saudi Arabia has money to spend. Following the Six Kings exhibition event last month where Jannik Sinner banked $6m, the ATP Nex Gen Finals will be staged next month while the ultimate aim to stage a Masters event. World No. 8 Casper Ruud said last month it's "inevitable" that Saudi Arabia will be "big in tennis" in the future.

But NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed staging the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia is "an offence to the pioneers who made women's tennis popular".

It cites how the 2022 Personal Status Law has enshrined in law male guardianship over women ,the illegality of homosexuality and the continued imprisonment of political prisoners.

Minky Worden of HRW said: "Staging the women's tennis flagship event is going to bring much-needed scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's "male guardianship" system that denies women basic human rights and discriminates against women in marriage, divorce, healthcare, and decisions about their children. The WTA finals should also turn the spotlight on Saudi Arabia's treatment of women's rights activists, and their long jail sentences."

But the biggest talking point in the pre-tournament press conference was Rybakina's hiring of Novak Djokovic's former coach Ivanisevic.

"I'm really looking forward to this partnership," she said. "I think he's a great champion and he has so much experience and I'm looking forward to start."