By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, November 2, 2024
“My view is sports can have a way to open doors for people,” said Coco Gauff sharing her concerns and hopes playing the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty for WTA
The WTA Finals debuts in Riyadh this month.
Coco Gauff asserts playing the season-ending championships in Saudi Arabia should be more than about tennis.
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Meeting the media today ahead of her WTA Finals opener, Gauff concedes she has real concerns about playing in Saudi Arabia given the Kingdom’s record on women’s rights and the fact same sex activity for both men and women is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
Gauff believes these WTA Finals must be about more than forehands and backhands—she’s hopeful it’s a step toward helping women receive more opportunities in Saudi Arabia.
“No, I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations,” Gauff told the media in Riyadh. “Obviously you know who I am and the things I speak about. I was pretty much on every player call I could make with WTA.
“One of the things I said, if we come here, we can’t just come here and play our tournament and leave. Like, we have to have a real program or real plan in place. We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi. One of them was Princess Reema. Multiple calls with her, how the best approach would be to enter into this different place that women have never kind of, women from U.S., have never kind of been in.”
Echoing Billie Jean King’s mantra “you have to see it, to be it” Gauff said she’s hopeful seeing elite women’s tennis will “open doors” for Saudi women interested in sport.
“Obviously I’m very aware of the situation here in Saudi. I mean, my view on it is I do think that sport can have a way to open doors to people,” Gauff said. “I think in order to kind of want change, you have to see it. I think sports for me, I would say is the easiest way to kind of introduce that. I know they started bringing more male sports here.
“I know with the golf and the tennis, I think it’s one of the first, this is the first professional women’s tennis event held here.”
The agreement with the Saudi Tennis Federation will offer record prize money of $15.25 million at the WTA Finals in 2024 with further increases in 2025 and 2026.
While the WTA’s three-year pact with the Saudi Tennis Federation creates both lucrative and stable home for the Tour’s crown jewel after it’s bounced around from Guadalajra to Forth Worth to Cancun, controversy and criticism has come as well.
Critics say the world’s most popular women’s sport is selling out the very values it helped establish partnering with a regime that represses women. Gauff says she’s raised the question of women’s rights and LGBTQ rights in the Kingdom, but believes it would be naive to expect immediate change.
“I think for me it was important and it was one of the questions I brought up because about LGBTQ issues, women’s rights issues, how we can help with that,” Gauff said. “I’m also very aware that we’re not going to come here and just change everything. That would be very nuance to say.
“But it’s a nuance kind of conversation. I think knowing from the past from my grandmother, integrating her school, people aren’t going to like it, but obviously in the long run I think it could be better for everybody.”
The Delray Beach-born baseliner said ultimately, she hopes contesting the WTA Finals in Riyadh can be a win for both women in the Kingdom and women’s tennis.
“Hopefully with WTA coming here and they pledged for the next three years to help the future Stars Program here in Saudi, have introduced more Saudi women especially into the sport,” Gauff said. “I think their goal is to have a million people playing tennis here by 2030.
“Hopefully with that, people can see us, what we represent, and hopefully that will enact more equality. Right now if you never come here, it can never end up like that. In order to want to have change, you have to see it.”
