Saudi Arabia will host the next three editions of the WTA Finals, the November tournament in which the best eight tennis players of the season compete, organized by the Women’s Tennis Association, the world organization for women’s tennis.
The organization of the tournament by Saudi Arabia was made official on Thursday, but it had been expected for some time, and had already attracted several criticisms due to the repression of many rights of women living in the country, governed in an authoritarian manner by the royal family. Among others, the decision was strongly contested by former tennis players Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, among the strongest of all time, who in January had urged the WTA not to hold the event in Saudi Arabia in an editorial published in Washington Post.
The WTA has made it known that the agreement stipulated with Saudi Arabia will allow it to offer a prize pool of around 14 million euros this year (the highest ever in the history of the tournament), and that in the next two years there will be further increases.
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