Portia Archer, the new chief executive of the WTA Tour, was forced to backtrack awkwardly as she attempted to defend the staging of this weekend’s Finals event in Saudi Arabia.
In her most significant media appearance since her appointment in July, Archer faced tricky questions about the big-money, three-year deal that has brought the WTA’s flagship to Riyadh.
At first, Archer seemed to want to distance herself – and the whole WTA Tour – from the gender politics of a country where women are legally required to have a male guardian.
Asked about the optics of staging the Finals in Riyadh, Archer replied: “We often play in environments and in countries that have different customs, different cultures, and in some cases, different value systems than I might have personally, or that the WTA may have, as an organisation based in the United States.”
When the subject was raised again, however, Archer backtracked. “Maybe I misspoke,” she said. “My intention was to really say that we respect the values [of Saudi Arabia], even if they differ from other countries that we find ourselves in and compete in.”
Archer also insisted that the WTA does discriminate when it looks at potential hosts, adding that there is a line beyond which the Tour would not stage tournaments on political or cultural grounds. She did, however, explain that “it’s difficult for me to say where we would draw the line”.
As Archer put it: “We do weigh what trade-offs there are. We do try to stay in alignment with the WTA values … I certainly know that there are cases and instances where we won’t go to certain countries if we don’t have that comfort that we’re going to be able to operate in a way that is in alignment with our goals and with our values.”
The WTA and their male equivalent, the ATP Tour, have both declined to stage events in Russia since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
However, the WTA resumed their involvement in China more than a year ago, having previously boycotted the country for more than two years over the controversial disappearance of former top-14 player Peng Shuai.
Tournaments resumed in September 2023 after the organisation acknowledged that “the situation has shown no sign of changing”.
The WTA Finals begin on Saturday with a doubles match followed by the first singles match, in which world No1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus takes on Chinese No1 Qinwen Zheng.
Prize money has been set at a record £11.75m, with the eventual champion receiving a minimum of £3.4m – and potentially £4m if they should negotiate the round-robin stage unbeaten.
Speaking out
The choice of Riyadh as the host of the WTA Finals has caused considerable controversy and disagreement among previous champions.
While WTA founder Billie Jean King has backed the move, saying “I don’t think you really change unless you engage”, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert penned a critical joint letter to the Tour.
Citing gender inequality and the criminalisation of the LGBTQ community, Evert and Navratilova argued that “Taking the WTA finals to Saudi Arabia would represent a significant step backwards, to the detriment of the WTA, women’s sports and women”.
On his Served podcast, meanwhile, former world No1 Andy Roddick greeted the announcement of the deal in April by saying: “What will p— me off is if the WTA takes this money and then continues their marketing about equality … You took the highest bidder that pretty much disagrees with everything that you’ve been marketing for the past 40 or 50 years.”
But Jasmine Paolini of Italy, one of the eight women to qualify for this eight-day event, took a different stance on Friday when she argued that the WTA Finals will show a positive example to the women of Saudi Arabia.
“I think [it] can be good for the country because I think it’s women competition with the best women in the world,” said Paolini. “We are all working. We are all independent. I think it’s good to promote this kind of competition in this country.”
Later on Friday, the former US Open champion Coco Gauff compared the push for gender equality in Saudi Arabia to the development of civil rights in her native USA, saying that she wanted to be part of the solution.
But Gauff also suggested that, if she felt there was no progress being made, she wouldn’t return to Riyadh for future editions of the WTA Finals.
“I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations,” Gauff explained. “[But] I really do feel like in order to ignite change, you have to start little by little. That’s how I’ve been taught growing up black in America, knowing our history.
“Obviously there were a lot of people opposed [to the civil rights movement]. Now we’re all equally living together. If we shied away from it then, where would we be now?
“The same message goes out there for women. I was very concerned. My dad was very concerned with me coming here. It’s one of those things where I want to see it for myself, see if the change is happening. If I felt uncomfortable or felt like nothing’s happening, then maybe I probably wouldn’t come back.
“As far as being here for a week, I really feel like it’s in the progress of going forward. The people I’ve spoken to, they say it’s in that way. I can only trust what I’m being told. Obviously, I don’t live here, so I can only trust what people are telling me that live here.”
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