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. |
How the US failed to stop a Cambodian monkey ‘smuggling conspiracy’ — Radio Free AsiaHouse prices fell 0.2% in last year, official figures reportUSDA and China CCP lab are creating deadly BIRD FLU viruses as part of $1m collaborationHow much of England's motorway network has no hard shoulder? This map reveals all...Baby not on board! Mother with threeYou could miss out on the dream of retiring to SpainThe Montreal Canadiens have exercised the option on coach Martin St. Louis' contractColumbia's Abbey Hsu chosen as Met Writers Association Player of the YearDelicious oneNorth Carolina University system considers policy change that could cut diversity staff