Jabeur on WTA in Saudi Arabia – “If it benefits the players, I’m 100 percent there”

Ons Jabeur believes that the WTA should embrace the idea of going to Saudi Arabia, and explained her rationale on Tuesday at Wimbledon.

Ons Jabeur, Stuttgart (Zuma _ Panoramic)

Chris Oddo

July 4, 2023

There have been considerable rumblings about the tennis tours – both the WTA and the ATP – signing deals with Saudi Arabia to play tour events in the Kingdom in the not too distant future.

Saudi Arabia has funneled billions of dollars into sports in recent years, with significant investments in football, Formula One and, most recently, golf, as the Saudi-backed LIV golf circuit recently came to a merger with the PGA Tour after a two-year dispute.

Ruud – Open for discussion

Several ATP players have spoken about the potential of a deal with Saudi Arabia this week, with Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud and others saying they are open to discussion.

“I think it’s fair to be open to the discussion,” said Ruud. “It’s a lot of debate obviously in many different sports. Whether that’s good or not, I think it seems to me that they are trying to modernize the country a lot and hosting these sport events.

“So you can call it sportwashing or whatever you want. But in the end, I think it’s good that the country, they have the economy and they want to be big in sports. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

Djokovic – Protect the integrity of the sport

Djokovic endorses a pragmatic approach.

“I think that we as individual sport on a global level are probably closest to golf in terms of how we see sports,” he said. “I think from that example we can probably learn a lot, some positives, some negatives, and try to structure a deal if it’s going in that direction in a proper way that is going to protect the integrity and tradition and history of this sport, but still be able to grow it in such way that it will be appropriate.”

Jabeur – Saudi Arabia has taken a step in the right direction

Jabeur hopes that Saudi Arabia invests with the WTA, and believes that what the country is doing with regard to women’s rights is a step in the right direction.

“I hope in Saudi they will not just invest with ATP, I hope with WTA,” she said. “I believe in Saudi they’re doing great giving women more rights. It’s time to change things. Believe it or not, we have the best two women in Arabic world right now playing in tennis. It’s now or never. I hope they really invest in WTA.”

Jabeur hopes that by opening up to Saudi Arabia, the WTA Tour will find itself in a better financial situation than it has been.

“I went to Saudi last year, and I was very impressed with the people there,” she said. “I believe it could be a great idea to go there and play tournaments. Yeah, let’s see what the deal will be. I hope they will see us for players, not just an investment but to give us more benefits than what we’re having right now.”