Susan Egelstaff on Sunday
EVEN the most short-sighted of observers saw this one coming. Saudi Arabia is going to take over tennis, the only question now being if it will be sooner or later. The Saudis have long been sniffing about the sport, but the past month has seen several interesting, or disheartening, developments – depending upon your point of view.
It has been revealed that the Private Investment Fund (PIF), which is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund, has offered a whopping $2 billion to buy the men’s and women’s associations, the ATP and the WTA, with a view to merging the two and creating one, combined tour. This would be named the Premium Tour and would streamline what is becoming an increasingly crowded calendar.
Further details will likely become clearer this month following the next round of show-down talks at the Madrid Masters, but surely all but the deluded can see that Saudi Arabia is coming for tennis.
And despite there being many critics opposed to the take-over, make no mistake they will get what they want. It may happen in the very near future, or it may take a few more years, but either way, my money is on there being only one winner.
The more pertinent question, then, is how good or bad this may be for the sport.
Andy Murray is the best person to listen to when it comes to looking for a voice of reason within tennis. He is a rare beast, a player who consistently puts morals over money.
The former world No.1 has turned down millions to play exhibition matches in Saudi, a stance few others have taken.
This year, it was announced that in October, Saudi Arabia will host a new elite tennis exhibition tournament featuring Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, as well as four other Grand Slam winners.
Called the Six Kings Slam, this competition highlights how many players will put money over any concerns they may have about Saudi Arabia and its questionable human rights record, which is why Murray’s stance of avoiding the Gulf state was such an obvious outlier.
Yet even the Scot’s stance is shifting. Last year, he admitted that should tour events be held in Saudi Arabia, he would consider participating, while last month, he was non-committal about how damaging it would be to have the Gulf state heavily involved.
In truth, the ship has already sailed when it comes to Saudi involvement in tennis.
The PIF has already signed a multi-year strategic partnership with the ATP, with its logo plastered everywhere at last month’s Indian Wells and Miami Masters tournaments.
So maybe, instead of trying to fight against its involvement, it makes sense to just embrace it. We all know that its involvement is sports-washing at its finest; the human rights abuses that go on within Saudi Arabia are well documented and we can all see how sport is being used to paper over these indiscretions.
But golf, boxing, F1 and several more sports have proved that attempting to thwart Saudi interest is futile.
And perhaps there would be benefits.
The proposition to merge the men’s and women’s tours is, in itself, a good idea; women’s tennis in particular often suffers as a result of the men’s and women’s tours being two separate entities and so by combining them, the women’s tour will be viewed less as the poor relation.
The proposed Premium Tour would see equal prize money awarded, something that already happens in the Grand Slam tournaments but is some way off in the tour events.
And a combined tour, with combined tournaments taking place, would also be of great benefit to the women.
This would also streamline the tour – a development which is badly needed. As it stands, the tennis calendar is bursting at the seams and contributes, at least in part, to the endless injury list suffered by the top players.
So there are, undoubtedly, benefits. But do these outweigh the negatives?
I’m no fan of sports-washing, but where there is money, players will go. Even for the Nadals, Djokovics and Alcarazs of this world, tens of millions of dollars is too much to turn down.
We’ve seen it happen in golf; men who have more money than they could ever spend are still lured by the eye-watering sums offered by the PIF.
I would wager that tennis will largely be in Saudi hands within the next three years. The wheels are already in motion and we will know after the Madrid Masters just how quickly they are turning.
From here on in, it’s about coming to terms with Saudi Arabia exerting yet more influence over sport and what that may mean.
The derision of sports-washing will, quite rightly, continue, but it will likely have little impact. Money talks, after all.
So, the focus should be on using the Saudi involvement to benefit sport, and particularly women’s sport, which in most cases needs the financial boost far more than men’s.
If something good can come out of this Saudi juggernaut, then that’s at least a crumb of comfort.
Where there is money, players will go. We’ve seen it happen in golf; men who have more money than they could ever spend are still lured by the eye-watering sums offered by the PIF