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. |
Children Attend Event as 'Little Architects' Ahead of Int'l Children's Day in Xi'anChina's Online Payment Users Top 900 Mln: ReportChina Beats Turkey in Women's Volleyball Nations LeagueSchool in Hangzhou Greets International Tea DaySchool in Hangzhou Greets International Tea DayChina Focus: ShenzhouHong Kong, China hold Turkmenistan in FIFA World Cup qualifierCultural and Creative Products Fair Held in Tibet MuseumOver 25 Mln Foreigners Learning Chinese by End of 2021: Education MinistryChina's Jiangsu to Create 14,000 New Jobs for Disabled People in 2022