WTA foothold in Saudi draws mixed player reaction

Tunisian Ons Jabeur is all in on an upcoming edition of the WTA Finals being staged in Saudi while American world No. 3 Jessica Pegula is only slightly precautious about the rumoured calendar revolution.

“As an Arab player, I’m very excited to be there. I am someone pushing for a change,pushing to give more and more opportunities especially for women,” Jabeur said on Friday prior to next week’s US Open start.

“I know in Saudi they’re changing things and they’re evolving. I was there.

I’ve been there to give a speech and interview there. 

“It was very nice meeting a lot of amazing women there. I’m trying to push to have (some) tennis in Saudi.”

The three time Grand Slam runner-up who lost here a year ago in the final to Iga Swiatek added: “I think it’s (moving the Finals) is a great step. 

“It’s something that could help the Arab world to have more tennis players, to get more involved in sports.

“If  they play there, and hopefully if I qualify, it will be a great honour and opportunity for me to go and play there,

With Saudi money taking over golf and the ATP agreeing this week to hold the annual NextGen Finals in Jeddah, the Saudi image clean-up campaign is gaining momentum.

That is probably OK for Pegula, whose family owns the Buffalo Bills NFL side and an NHL franchise. 

“We’d obviously have to see a lot of pros outweighing the cons to feel comfortable going there,” she said. 

“Whether that’s seeing them (Saudi) maybe donating money to women’s sports or women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, to see some sort of change helping those causes in their country. I think that would be something really important.

“If we did end up going there, we would want to see (that)

If we can go there and create change, that’s also a great thing.”

She added: “It’s going to have to be the right arrangement and we’re going to have to know if we go there, OK, we want to be making a change, and you need to help us do that.

“If the money was right and the arrangement was something that we could get behind, then I would be OK playing there. We’ll have to see how it works out.”