RIYADH (Saudi Arabia) (WS News) – Coco Gauff believes bringing the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia can “open doors” and inspire positive change for women in the country, although the world number three admitted: “I’d be lying to you if I said I had no reservations”.
The WTA has signed a three-year deal with the Saudi Tennis Federation to stage its season finale in Riyadh, with the first edition kicking off at King Saud University Indoor Arena on Saturday.
The WTA has come under scrutiny for its decision to go to Saudi Arabia, with critics citing the conservative kingdom’s record on freedom of expression and women’s rights as reasons against the move.
Gauff, 20, admits she had reservations about the idea of staging the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia and wanted to see for herself what kind of progress is being made.
“Obviously I’m very aware of the situation here in Saudi. My view on it is I do think that sport can have a way to open doors to people. I think in order to want change, you have to see it. I think sports for me, I would say is the easiest way to introduce that,” said the American star.
“I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations. I was pretty much on every player call I could make with the WTA. One of the things I said, if we come here, we can’t just come here and play our tournament and leave. We have to have a real program or real plan in place.”
Gauff said the calls included conversations with Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, in which Gauff asked questions about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights in the country.
“In the long run I think it could be better for everybody,” said the American.
“It’s one of those things where I want to see it for myself, see if the change is happening. If I felt uncomfortable or felt like nothing’s happening, then I probably wouldn’t come back.”
World number one Aryna Sabalenka said she was “really happy” to be playing a part in bringing women’s tennis to Saudi Arabia and hailed the country’s efforts put into attracting top sporting events.
“I’ve been here in an exhibition match with Ons (Jabeur last year) and I saw that everything here is quite chill and me, personally, I don’t have any issues playing here,” said the Belarusian.
“The effort they’re putting into women’s sport here, it’s incredible and I’m really impressed. I’m really happy to be here and to be part of some sort of history here.”
WTA chief executive Portia Archer defended the tour’s decision to stage the Finals in Riyadh.
“This is our first time in Riyadh, but we’ve been in the Middle East more broadly for 20-plus years,” said Archer, referring to the WTA tournaments held in Dubai and Doha since 2001.
“We’ve actually never had any issues with freedom of expression, at least not that I’m aware of. I don’t expect that we’ll have any while we’re here in Riyadh.”
When pressed to weigh in on whether the values of the WTA align with the host country, Archer said: “We respect the values, even if they differ from other countries that we find ourselves in and compete in.”
