“If we go there, we want to be making change” – Pegula conflicted about potential Finals move to Saudi Arabia

As rumours of a possible WTA Finals move to Riyadh intensify, questions about where the players stand on the issue have provided much of the background music to the build-up towards the final Grand Slam of the year.

The WTA has yet to decide on a location for the showpiece season-ending event, which is scheduled to take place between 30th October and 5th November.

But there is growing speculation that Saudi Arabia is one of the leading candidates to host the event.

Inevitably, this has sparked a flurry of questions to leading WTA names regarding their thoughts on the matter.

Players’ responses have differed notably in their approach to such a sensitive question.

Pegula open to Saudi Arabia, but with certain conditions attached

The response of World No 3 and recent National Bank Open champion Jessica Pegula, when asked about the issue, was unique in that it neither avoided the topic altogether, as both Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff chose to do, nor opted to wholly embrace or denounce the situation as Ons Jabeur and Daria Kasatkina did respectively.

Pegula’s answer was more balanced.

“Well, yeah, I mean, first of all, yeah, that’s a rumour. I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not. I know that’s been up in the air,” the American No 1 explained.

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“I think that if you look at a pros and cons list, we’d obviously have to see there be a lot of pros overweighing the cons to feel comfortable going there.

“Whether that’s seeing them as a group maybe [having] to donate money to women’s sports or women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, to see some sort of change or action going towards helping those causes in their country.

“I think that would be something really important that, if we did end up going there, we would want to see.”

WTA have the chance to turn a problem into an opportunity

Pegula’s response raises an interesting and little-discussed facet of this conversation – the WTA’s ability (or otherwise) to bargain with Saudi Arabia, using the conditions of any potential deal in order to enhance the profile of women’s sport and women’s rights in the country.

Any such bargaining power the WTA holds may be somewhat limited, however, given that it is under pressure to find a location sooner rather than later.

I think it’s just going to have to be the right arrangement… We want to be making a change, and you need to help us do that.

Pegula on using the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia as a catalyst for change

Last season, the delay in finding eventual host city Fort Worth for the Finals led to severely low crowd numbers, mostly as a result of insufficient marketing and promotional opportunities leading up to the event.

The WTA will be eager to avoid any such repeat of last season.

But the small-print of any deal with the Saudis is clearly front and centre of Pegula’s mind, and could be the key to turning a potential problem into a genuine opportunity to generate positive change.

“I think it’s just going to have to be the right arrangement and we’re going to have to know if we go there, okay, well, we want to be making a change, and you need to help us do that”, Pegula went on to say.

“Unfortunately a lot of places don’t pay women a lot of money, and it’s unfortunate that a lot of women’s sports, like we don’t have the luxury to say no to some things.

“Again, I think if the money was right and the arrangement was something that we could get behind where we could go and create change, then I would be okay playing there.”

Pressure ramping up for the WTA as season moves towards a conclusion

After the US Open, the tennis season will be rapidly approaching its conclusion, and eyes will soon turn to the season-ending finals on both tours.

Both the pressure to find a location for the WTA Finals and the scrutiny about where that location may be will further intensify in the weeks ahead.

The WTA will be under tremendous pressure not to simply crumble to the most lucrative offer. Whether it will or not is another question.

As Jessica Pegula puts it, “Those are all factors that it depends on for me. We’ll just have to see how it works out.”

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