With sports from soccer to golf, F1 to cycling chasing Saudi oil money, tennis could be next.
But count John McEnroe and Chris Evert — two of the game’s greats — as against the idea.
Both the ATP and WTA have been targeted by the Saudis, with the Nextgen Finals already set to move there and now rumors of the WTA Finals possibly eyeing the Gulf state.
The latter left Evert first caught off guard, then put off.
“I didn’t read that. I don’t know … really?” Evert said incredulously. “I mean, for me, I would prefer not to go to Saudi Arabia to play the WTA Finals. 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.”
The WTA’s talks with Saudi Arabia — infamous for its treatment of women, among other human rights issues — is well known.
But Wednesday, before Evert and McEnroe did an ESPN call for the U.S. Open, tennis podcaster Craig Shapiro cited sources in reporting the WTA Finals would “likely be played in Riyadh in 2024.”
The Saudis have already flexed their financial muscle in bringing soccer stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and more recently Neymar to the Gulf.
There was also LIV Golf, which plucked golf stars and forced a merger with the PGA Tour. And the ATP opted to hold the Nextgen Finals in Saudi Arabia.
None of it sits well with McEnroe, who called out the hypocrisy of claiming the moral high ground then caving and taking Saudi cash.
“This is something that’s being bandied about obviously since golf did this,” McEnroe said. “But a lot of the people … 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. But as [Evert] said, it’s not up to us. Someone else is going to make that [decision]. They’re talking about the Nextgen Finals going there, 21 and under. This is just something that I don’t understand why we’re going in that direction.”
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