British tennis snubs Saudi cash
LTA rejects sponsorship deal for Queen’s and Eastbourne ATP-PIF proposal sign of Gulf state’s aims to dominate sport
British tennis chiefs have rejected shock proposals by the Association of Tennis Professionals to partner with Saudi Arabia, as the Middle East nation makes the sport its latest target for domination.
The Public Investment Fund, which is the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, was homing in on a remarkable branding deal for the Queen’s and Eastbourne tournaments before the Lawn Tennis Association dismissed the offer. In a move that would have dismayed English grasscourt purists, international tour executives had thrashed out terms that would have brought prominent advertising for a Riyadh brand.
Well-placed sources said the partnership was plotted as the first stage of even grander plans for Saudi Arabia in tennis, after multi-billion pound projects in golf and football. However, a lucrative proposal negotiated between Saudi and the ATP to include the two summer tournaments is understood to have been flatly rejected by the LTA board. “We’ve declined to participate in this sponsorship proposal put to us by the ATP and PIF,” the LTA told Telegraph Sport in a statement.
The Saudi-atp proposal was to include the two summer tournaments in a sponsorship deal, along with several other events, including Masters 1000s in Miami and Madrid. However, although the decision to turn down the deal was made solely by the LTA board, some sources close to the talks suggested that the deal would not have been welcomed at the All England Club, which is one of the most cautious organisations in world sport in choosing branding partnerships.
Saudi officials have been in talks with top tennis executives for more than a year about multiple potential investments. In October, the country announced it would host two tennis exhibitions in late December, including a match between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
Tennis has long been hamstrung by its disunited governance. Players benefit from around 25 per cent of the sport’s revenues, when many team sports secure 50 per cent. Another challenge to the status quo comes from the rival player union founded by 24-time major champion Djokovic – the Professional Tennis Players Association.
In response, the men’s and women’s tennis tours took the first steps towards a historic merger, inviting executives and tournament representatives to a two-day summit in London. Talks will resume in Melbourne during the Australian Open, with another potential scenario involving a “Premier Tier” that would elevate the four majors and 10 Masters 1000 events over rankand-file tournaments.
The signs have been there for years, but it seems like tennis – and British tennis at that – is at threat of being submerged in Saudi Arabia’s wave of sporting conquests.
The news, broken by Telegraph Sport, that the Public Investment Fund had been closing in on a deal to sponsor Queen’s and Eastbourne, will have taken few by surprise. The Lawn Tennis Association’s rejection of the deal, which was put to it by the Association of Tennis Professionals, perhaps did.
The cynics who have followed how Saudi investment has infiltrated Premier League football, golf and boxing could perhaps not imagine a sporting body putting up a fight at this stage. The evidence unfortunately suggests that this could be the final resistance, as tennis becomes the latest to succumb to the lure of the Saudis’ bottomless pit of cash.
A sponsorship offer for a string of high-level events (the deal the ATP was hoping to strike also included the Madrid and Miami Open) is not the same thing as a breakaway tour, in the way of LIV Golf. But it is still significant and a sign of the next steps as the Saudis continue to be gradually allowed into tennis.
The past few years in sport have proved that no protective force can keep out a kingdom able to offer such eye-watering sums. That would be especially true in tennis, which remains so fragmented at the very top.
Seven stakeholders govern the sport – the four grand slams, the two tours and the International Tennis Federation – and these factions are all constantly trying to elbow their way to the top of the relevance charts. They are historically bad at working in harmony, too, and not afraid to go after each other (see the response to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian players). The Saudi offers are more likely to land in the midst of their squabbling.
This latest proposed deal may not have been accepted by the LTA, but it is one of a number of indications that tennis executives appear intent on fully opening the door to the Saudis in due course.
Ahead of last season’s Wimbledon, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said his talks with the Saudi PIF had been “positive” and then the announcement came that the ATP’S Next Gen Finals had struck a five-year hosting deal in Jeddah. December marked the first professional tennis event to be held in the kingdom.
On Tuesday, tennis journalist Jon Wertheim reported on X that the ATP had posted a vacancy on Linkedin for a partnerships and business development manager. Job location? Saudi Arabia.
The Women’s Tennis Association, which has been in a precarious financial position, was reportedly approached by Saudi Arabia to host the end-of-season finals last year. Vocal opposition from Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert is said to have contributed to the deal stalling, but it remains likely that the tour will head there this year.
Billie Jean King (below), WTA’S founder and tennis’s moral compass, has even said she sees it as an unavoidable future for the women’s tour, and was not against the idea as long as the governing body pushed for social change in the country.
There have been exhibition events in Saudi Arabia during the off-season for years, and last month Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz picked up big cheques for playing a match in Riyadh. Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur was there, too, and is now sponsored by female fitness brand Kayanee, which was set up by PIF.
Even Andy Murray, who turned down six-figure exhibition appearance offers, softened his views last year
For a time, the idea of Saudi involvement in sport was tiptoed around by athletes who feared a backlash, but players on the tennis tour now seem far less afraid of the consequences.
Even Andy Murray, who for so long had said he would never play in the kingdom due to human rights concerns, and who turned down six-figure exhibition appearance offers, softened his views last summer.
Murray admitted that he might find it more difficult to avoid professional events with ranking points on offer, saying: “Unfortunately it’s the way that a lot of sports seem to be going now.”
It is a measure of how sportswashing ultimately works, as some players do not seem to clock any element of controversy in partnering with a state that criminalises homosexuality, rejects women’s rights and restricts free speech. Meanwhile, others feel at a loss as to how to fight against it. Tennis has not jumped head first into Saudi involvement but rather slowly crept towards the possibility. Now, arriving at this juncture where the LTA is trying to fend off a more tangible commitment, the question is how long can this last stand hold?
rank-and-file tournaments in places such as Antwerp and Delray Beach.
But, with much unresolved, the ATP has cancelled its traditional players’ meeting on the eve of the tournament, citing an intention to reschedule it in the spring.
The bosses of the ATP and Women’s Tennis Association – respectively Gaudenzi and Steve Simon – are understood to remain open to aligning the tours and pooling assets, however.
A two-day summit took place in London in September, with the spectre of LIV Golf, and the fear of a tennis equivalent, prompting the tours to act with some urgency.
As Saudi Arabia looks to pursue aggressively any investment opportunities in a shake-up, there is likely to be more resistance among the women players, at least, than there has been in football, golf and Formula One around sportswashing.
The WTA had to shelve proposals to stage last year’s finals event in Riyadh due to public opposition from the likes of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert – who had both highlighted Saudi Arabia’s regressive stance on women.
Although the ATP led negotiations with Saudi on sponsorship for Queen’s and Eastbourne, the Lawn
Tennis Association was solely responsible for dismissing the partnership. IMG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, owns the two Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Miami, and may yet accept the Public Investment Fund proposal. Those two IMG tournaments were initially targeted for outright purchase by Saudi, which already hosts the Diriyah Tennis Cup exhibition in December, but the two parties could not manage to agree a deal.
Sources insist the ATP sponsorship proposal was not to replace car retailer Cinch as title sponsor for Queen’s or Rothesay, the pensions specialist, for Eastbourne. The ATP declined to comment yesterday.