The WTA's Saudi/Tennis Conundrum

Inside and outside the Alwiyah Club, Baghdad 2023. Founded in the 1920s by British Diplomat, Gertrude Bell, it became the scene of the slaughter of Iraq’s Davis Cup team by Al-Qaeda in May 2006.

For most people who pick up a tennis ball and a racquet, international politics is the last thing on their minds. Until one bright May 2006 day in Baghdad, when idealism and extremism clashed near the courts of the upmarket Alwiyah Club in the city’s centre.

By all accounts, Davis Cup coach Hussein Rashid, 35, and promising players, Nasser Hatem, 28, and Wissam Adel Audal, 25, were dropping off their laundry after practicing at Alwiyah, one of the city’s main tennis hubs, where Sunni and Shia, Kurd and Arab, regularly gathered to play tennis. A car quickly cut them off, followed by a squad of Al-Qaeda hit men who jumped out and shot the three men to death. The fourth, Akram Mustafa Abdulkarim, 41 — a doubles specialist who recently helped the Iraqi Davis Cup team beat the UAE in the 2024 Asia/Pacific region — survived. He had opted to travel home in a second car. “It was not sectarian violence — one was Shia, the other two were Sunni,” Abdulkarim told Agence France Presse after the incident. “(The Davis Cup players) were wearing tennis shorts and sports gear after training. They were killed because they were athletes.”

Women’s tennis is not in Iraq this week — the country lost its Fed Cup team in 2014 but recently developed a Billie Jean King Cup team — but with the uproar it has caused, it might as well be. The Women’s Tennis Association President (WTA) CEO Portia Archer not only gave a statement on the decision to turn over one of the premier events on the WTA calendar to a country notorious for not only its dismaying record when it comes to women’s rights, but also the secrecy the country demands from all who do business with it. “Players can express themselves freely. There's no sort of briefing that was required. What we have expressed to our players, and will reexpress to our players when we're in new environments, (is that) this is a new country for the WTA, this is a new country for many of our players, that we are asked questions that the players had.

“Our decision was made with full consultation with our players and with our tournaments…” she added in a rare press conference. “We feel comfortable in our decision and we think that it will support women in tennis and enable some very positive things to come out of us being here that will last well beyond the eight days that we're here this year and successively the next two years…”

The WTA Class of 2024, which is playing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of a deal inked with the Saudi investment fund (PIF). Left to right, first row: Jasmine Paolini, Coco Gauff, Qinwen Zheng, Iga Świątek, Arnya Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula; second row: Barbora Krejcikova and Elena Rybakina.

The pundits have been in full swing, calling the decision to ultimately nix China for good for the event (in late 2021, after the Chinese tennis superstar Peng Shuai disappeared, eventually resurfaced and retracted her claims of sexual assault, the WTA called off a 10-year-deal to host in Shenzhen, China) “more symbolic than substantive” after the tour returned for a full Chinese swing in October 2023. The reactions from horror to concern to shoulder-shrugging by Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula continued into the Saudi event before the knock-out round, with low turnout proving to many a commentator that Saudi is “sportswasing,” among other slights. Ironically, the current Chinese face of tennis, Qinwen Zheng, defeated Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka, before Sabalenka proved that a turbo-charged forehand will wipe the smile off any joyful Italian (Jasmine Paolini).

“Inevitable as the arrangement may have appeared, the WTA’s arrival in Saudi Arabia is particularly significant, underlining the unique appeal of tennis as one of the biggest women’s sports in the world, which the kingdom can use to support its claims of reformed women’s rights. Still, the LGBTQ+ community continues to face significant repression, male guardianship laws remain in place and women’s rights activists, such as Manahel al-Otaibi and Salma al-Shehab, are subject to lengthy jail times on terrorism-related offences for simply supporting women’s rights on social media,” wrote Tumaini Carayol in a Guardian sports analyis, WTA Finals in Riyadh: women’s tennis has become Saudi sportswashing tool.

Saudi Arabia has moved into tennis like never before, nearly besting its rivals, Qatar and the UAE, which has run two major tennis tournaments since the turn of the century. Rafael Nadal, who has an academy in Kuwait, and Ons Jabeur, have both beome official and unofficial ambassadors to the Saudi Tennis Federation, with both playing exhibition matches and Jabeur dropping Italian sports clothier, Lotto, for the Saudi brand Kayanee. Both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the WTA have accepted and even initiated strategic partnerships with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and in turn have accepted official branding by the PIF for the ATP Rankings and WTA Rankings, with the PIF’s logo on everything. Women’s tennis giant Billie Jean King has come out in favor of engagement with Saudi Arabia, while her generational colleagues, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova penned a very pointed op-ed denouncing the decision. “"We did not help build women's tennis to be exploited by Saudi Arabia," reads the headline of their joint column, according to Agence France Presse. "WTA Tour officials, without proper consultation with the players, who are the foundation of the sport, are on the verge of accepting the organisation of the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia," the players wrote. "This is completely inconsistent with the spirit and purpose of women's tennis and the WTA itself. We fully understand the importance of respecting different cultures and religions. It is because of this, not despite it, that we object to the most important tournament on the circuit being awarded to Riyadh."

Arab tennis star — and Tunisian “Minister of Happiness” — has gone full in with Saudi Arabia, supporting a Public Investment Fund (PIF) event at the BNP/Paribas Open in Palm Springs, March 2024.

But what if engagement is a good thing? Even if the countries have been denounced by the world for their public policies? It happened in China, but even China didn’t set a precedent. Tennis’ way of breaking open doors for minorities dates all the way back to the early 1970s and Arthur Ashe’s decision to crash the African Open in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the docket list of the world’s worst countries for its apartheid policies.

In June 1968 at the Queens Club outside London, Ashe’s fellow player, a South-African named Cliff Drysdale, mentioned the South African Open. He then turned to Ashe and stated, “They’d never let you play,” meaning that the South African government would never grant Ashe a visa. With the backing of the U.S. government, Ashe nonetheless mailed in a visa applications for 1969 and 1970, which South African Prime Minister John Vorster promptly rejected. In response, Ashe and his comrade, Stan Smith, went to Africa for the State Department’s Sports Envoy Program. For 18 days in 1971, the pair trekked 2,500-miles for a “soft power” expedition of six African countries — Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana — giving tennis clinics, granting interviews and playing exhibition matches. Ashe took a lot of flak for it. He took it in stride. The South African government also came under much scrutiny for denying Ashe his visa on the grounds that Ashe “was associated with black politics in the United States and had often expressed his support for the black liberation movement in southern Africa…’”

Yet, the South African government came under pressure in 1972 to grant permission to two non-whites: Evonne Goolagong, an Australian aborigine and Kazuko Sawamatsu of Japan. “Maybe it's over for me, but to South Africa, I say, there will be more after me and more after them,” Ashe said in response. Ashe visited the United Nations, which passed a resolution condemning apartheid and asked nations to boycott South Africa. Still, international companies continued to trade with South Africa and other sports events took place. Another year went by, but in 1973, Ashe was granted his visa to play the South Africa Open. While Ashe was often scorned by the anti-apartheid community, his actions contributed the important debate on how best to confront apartheid, an internationally condemned policy, through engagement. This debate, over whether to attempt change through dialogue or boycott, through negotiation or confrontation, helped to frame American foreign policy toward South Africa from the 1960s until the 1980s.

Arthur Ashe visits the Soweto township in 1973, the first time he played in South Africa.

But the man from segregated Richmond, Virginia went further when he heard that the government could prevent Black fans from attending the tournament: Ashe refused to play unless seating for his matches was integrated. The South African government, surprisingly, granted that demand. When asked if the controversy had weighed him down Ashe replied, “Problems such as these hurt tennis, but I enjoy my role… if it does good in the world, it is not a burden”. Once in Johannesburg, Ashe sailed through both the doubles and singles draws before losing to fellow American Jimmy Connors in the Men’s singles finals. Ashe nonetheless returned to South Africa in 1974 and once again advanced to the finals, once again losing to Jimmy Connors. Still, Ashe made an impact. “A lot of people, a lot of Blacks, say I should not lend the South Africans dignity by applying for a passport… My feeling was, I had to confront them to make it difficult for them… My involvement in the controversy has been my passport through Africa.”

Tennis and Padel are on the moved in the Middle East, with clubs and parks building Padel Courts left and right. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) now has its Middle Eastern Tennis Academy in Tunisia, while Morocco, Qatar and the UAE has hosted men’s and women’s professional events for the past 15 years, Qatar being nearly as harsh as Saudi in its restrictions on women and its hand in backing groups such as the Taliban and hosting their offices, as well as several others.

In recent years, a third category of sports diplomacy (in addition to publicity and regime change) has appeared, however: Sport for Development and Peace (SDP). To understand and explore how sports diplomacy works through cultural institutions, it is best to refer to concepts of how it has the ability to effect change — through soft power. “Soft power” is a nation’s ‘ability to shape the preference of others’ through its values, culture, and institutions. The soft power of sport allows for others to see comeradery across dividing lines and connects people through the love of the game — regardless of race, age, religion, or nationality.

In his heyday, Arthur Ashe was a regular at the United Nations, where he argued for the opportunity to play the whites-only South African Open during its apartheid era. The event, which Ashe insisted be attended by Blacks as well as whites, has been cited for turning the tide against segregation and terrorism.

In addition to using sports diplomacy events to achieve targeted diplomatic outcomes, sports ambassadors have also spread universal values, as well as national values — the same messages as the diplomatic core of the country it is representing. Cultural Ambassadors must fall under a classification known as “High-Performers.” In other words, winners mostly remain in the minds and hearts of the people as they play at the highest level of competition, and the media pays more attention to these groups telling their stories among people. Ashe's interactions with the various governments he visited, including apartheid South Africa, illustrated the emergence and importance of sports in diplomatic relations and international affairs from the struggle for global civil rights to nuclear nonproliferation.

So why not women’s rights? Why not Saudi Arabia? Already Mayar Sherif of Egypt, Innes Ibbou of Algeria, Cagla Buyukakcay and Ipek Soylu, both from Turkey, and Fatma al-Nabhani from Oman have made strides among Arab women for their participation in the sport without having the traditional dress or rules heaped upon them, as they travel the world and play the tours. But women’s integration was even done before these Arab pioneers, the Chinese players, Blacks and all the societies seeking entry into the annals of the prestigious sport.

British tennis standout, Angela Buxton — the woman who said “yes” when everyone else said “no,” — had been a justice warrior from an early age. Buxton learned how to play tennis in apartheid South Africa, where she, her mother and her brother had been sent by her Jewish father during World War II. When Buxton returned to London post-War and was rejected by polite tennis society, she was equally determined to succeed, and in 1954, she earned the British No. 4 ranking and started playing Wightman Cup matches for England. Two years later, Buxton played the 1956 ladies singles Championship and won the doubles with Althea Gibson, the first Black woman to play any Grand Slam and tour the world with Buxton, playing exhibitions in Southeast Asia, where Communism and the foment of revolution was at play.

One of Erbil, Iraq’s best female players hits the court at Peshmerga Park Tennis Club for the usual Thursday night practice with the boys. Photo: Carlotta Cardana.

Back in Iraq, both boys and girls coming back to the former Islamic Republic from other countries with new outlooks, fresh ideas and a strong desire to move their country forward. And although there exists dubious news about its parliamentary bodies wanting to lower the age of marriage to nine (patently false), a good percentage of dads in the country plan to either improve their daughters’ world view via institutions or send them to Western countries to learn English and have better opportunities. The Billie Jean King cup efforts returned to Iraq and while the men compete for spots on the Davis Cup team, the girls are joining them on courts around the country to try their skill at a spot.

Moreover, Padel — a sport best known in Spain — has enveloped the Middle East, with Padel courts and platforms being instructed from Jeddah to Erbil. Both men and women are picking up the sport at an unprecedented rate, even taking joint lessons and playing mixed doubles together.

Who are we to dictate the terms on which a formerly backward-looking country wants to change? Who are we to deny women a chance to see women of other countries engaging in the activities they also want on their home turf? Little by little, actions of a few start to change the minds of many, and before one can say Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, woman are not only putting on their running shoes for the Riyadh Marathon, but kicking footballs and picking up tennis racquets to take up the newest sport to hit the country. Jabeur and a few others who toughed it out on the back courts of majors and were fixtures on the Challengers circuit know the benefit of reaching out and establishing relationships. No one wants to see women suffer in the Middle East, nor do they want to see female players stifled in these countries. But let’s not take their power away by shaming and restricting their choices and movements. It’s as bad as supporting the government forces they are trying to fight.

The Thursday night tennis club at Peshmerga Park where these five players aim to be the country’s next Davis- and BJK-cup players. Photo: Carlotta Cardana.