‘Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Cancun anymore’
The fact that the 2024 WTA Finals is not like any other tournament (especially not like last year’s disgraceful edition in Cancun) is clear even before arriving at the playing arena, when the car driving to the tournament (public transport is not exactly efficient as the Riyadh metro is not yet completed) passes through the immense campus of King Saud University (simply KSU for the locals), a behemoth of over 60,000 students and 900 hectares, most of it occupied by huge car parks that make those of mega-stadiums and airports anywhere else in the world pale in comparison.
The King Saud Indoor Arena is a fairly compact facility, given the size of everything around it, including the King Saud University Stadium, home of the Al Nassr football team, the one in which Cristiano Ronaldo plays. For these WTA Finals, the venue has been reduced to an official capacity of 4,200 spectators (although it looks smaller) to make the stands closer to the players and create a more intimate atmosphere around the court.
The elaborate signage creates an environment that blends the areas inside and outside the arena, from the court to the Fan Zone outside the entrance with children’s games, stands and refreshment areas. The ushers, whose vaguely bewildered looks betray the fact that they have not seen much tennis in their lives, all wear bibs displaying the words ‘Ask me’, although one wonders what answers they might be able to give, holding colourful racket-shaped signs that attempt to steer the behaviour of the audience: ‘The match is about to start, please take your seats’, ‘Match in progress, please do not move’, ‘Silence your mobile phone, thank you’. Movement inside is handled according to the old-fashioned rules, i.e. you can only leave the stands during the change of ends, not at the end of each game as trialled last summer on tour. Probably a wise choice for a public (and service staff) of newcomers who need clear and simple rules.
Women’s tennis in uncharted territory
Obviously, it was to be expected that organising a women’s tennis tournament in Saudi Arabia, where only a few years ago women were not even allowed to play tennis (and do many other things, such as drive or be seen in public with a man who was not their father or brother), would not lead to oceanic crowds. However, there were still fifteen million reasons to choose this location, starting of course with the prize money, but perhaps mainly to create a showcase for women’s sport in the most hostile of environments. ‘It is the tournament with the best female players in the world’, Jasmine Paolini commented on the choice of Riyadh as the venue for the WTA Finals, ’we are all working women, we are independent, it is a good thing to promote this competition in a country like this.’
Of course, that’s one point of view. Certainly, things have improved a lot for women in Saudi Arabia in recent history: Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) president Arij Mutabagani said that there are 60,000 girls who have taken up tennis, and some of them have had the opportunity to meet the champions involved in the Finals for inspiration. Even Judy Murray, Andy Murray’s mother and former coach, who immediately after the announcement of the decision to move the year-end tournament to Saudi Arabia had harshly criticised the choice, in her role as Community Ambassador for the WTA has been involved in tennis development projects in the country and has since radically changed her stance: ‘We have a great opportunity. It is a completely blank sheet of paper, we have to start from scratch. Now we are creating the foundations, and once this phase is completed, many interesting things will happen.’
Inside the facility hosting the WTA Finals there are no segregated areas for men and women, with the exception of the toilets and prayer rooms. And even more generally in the public places of Riyadh one does not perceive a clear division between men and women, although the percentage of niqabs (the black dress that completely covers the female figure except for the eyes) is certainly higher than in other less traditionalist Gulf countries. The huge campus of King Saud University, however, has an area dedicated exclusively to female students.
And while the situation has certainly improved for women’s status in the recent past, it is not so good for members of the LGTBQ+ community, whose lifestyle is still illegal and punishable by imprisonment in Saudi Arabia, even though reserve player Daria Kasatkina quietly came to this tournament with her partner Natalia Zabiiako, and during training sessions the two quietly showed PDAs towards each other without any consequence.
The bet on Saudi Arabia
During the opening singles match of the tournament between Sabalenka and Zheng the turnout was encouraging: a stadium three-quarters full had created a good atmosphere. But it was a non-working day and there were many Chinese supporters who had come to support the Olympic gold medallist. Almost 40 percent of the residents of Saudi Arabia are foreign nationals who are in the country for work, and the vast majority of spectators on Saturday were visibly non-locals, with a very high proportion of children and teenagers.
But on the other hand, the concept of a women’s sport is really far from the traditional Saudi concept of entertainment, and the change will have to come from newer generations more open to Western values and habits, in addition to the fast food, fashion and electronics brands that are already monopolising the malls.
One can argue about the appropriateness of bringing the main event of the WTA tour to a venue where one knows in advance that audience participation will be extremely low, creating a rather sterile environment. But sometimes you can’t have it all, and painful choices have to be made: the WTA Finals represent more than 50% of the WTA budget, so numbers have to add up. The petro-dollars of PIF, Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund worth over 900 billion dollars, ensure a sweet financial deal for the players’ association, a prize money in line with that of the men’s Nitto ATP Finals in Turin (actually it was a little higher, before the ATP immediately matched the amount not to be outdone) and the possibility of being the first women’s professional sport to open up an unexplored frontier like Saudi Arabia.
Somebody had to hold their nose, that’s for sure, but if women’s tennis wants to continue to compete with men’s tennis even when its commercial appeal is clearly inferior, it is necessary to go to those who are willing to pay above-market (or even out-of-market) figures because they have ulterior motives. On the other hand, this is nothing new: in 2011-13 the event took place in Istanbul, in a crowd bath with more than 15,000 spectators per session filling the Sinan Erdem Dome, but this happened because tickets were sold at very low prices (the most expensive ticket for the finals cost around 30 euros), and the Turkish organisers were busy running for the 2020 Olympics, so they wanted to show the world that they could organise a high-profile event. And when the Olympics were awarded to Tokyo, the WTA Finals had to look for a new home.
Of course, one cannot help but think of the bid that had been made by the organisers of Ostrava and Prague to host the WTA Finals in the Czech Republic. The prize money on offer would have been similar to that in Riyadh, although there are few details about the other conditions of the package. In the Czech Republic, with a long tennis tradition for both men and women, it would certainly have been possible to fill even the largest facility, the O2 Arena in Prague, which can hold up to 14,000 spectators in its tennis configuration and which would have been available from 2025 (in 2024 it was already occupied, and therefore the first edition would have had to be hosted in Ostrava).
However, the WTA might also have made an opportunistic reasoning: the Czech market is well established, and it is not unlikely there will be opportunities to play the Finals there in the future. The Arab money, on the other hand, could leave just as easily as it came, if the organisers in Riyadh realise that tennis is not for them, or if they manage to get their hands on men’s tennis, which is certainly a more appealing target. For Saudi Arabia women’s tennis is most likely a means to another end, and not just ‘sportwashing’, but also a stepping stone to a more prominent position in men’s tennis. For women’s tennis, too, the WTA Finals in Riyadh are a means to another end, namely the diffusion of tennis among girls in a virgin and until recently inaccessible territory.
A marriage of convenience, as there are many. After all, business is business.
