NEW YORK (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s move into tennis will now include a multiyear deal to sponsor the WTA women’s rankings. The WTA released word of its partnership agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) on Monday, a move that follows last month’s news that the kingdom will host the tour’s season-ending championships in Riyadh starting this year and February’s announcement that it will sponsor the ATP men’s rankings. Both tours’ rankings deals are for five years. The PIF is the first naming-rights partner for the WTA rankings and the new arrangement also includes plans to promote tennis at lower levels of the sport. Tennis has been consumed lately by the debate over whether the sport should follow golf and others in making deals with Saudi Arabia, where rights groups say women continue to face discrimination in most aspects of family life and homosexuality is a major taboo, as it is in much of the rest of the Middle East. |
Trump's $175 million bond in New York civil fraud judgment case is settled with cash promiseDonald Trump trial LIVE: Michael Cohen says exMinistry of Defence gives Ukrainian soldiers free cigarettesMaui officials push back on some details in Hawaii attorney general report on deadly wildfireAnalysis: How Inter Milan won its 20th Serie A title and Inzaghi his first as coachA new report says Mexico has abandoned protection of loggerhead sea turtlesVenezuela's president meets with accuser in ongoing criminal probe into human rights abuseThe remains of a WWII pilot from Michigan are identified 8 decades after a fatal bombing missionCalifornia legislators prepare to vote on a crackdown on utility spendingReport urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse