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. |
Boston Marathon winners hope victories will earn them spot in Paris OlympicsA painting of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work he hated is up for auctionThe push for school choice in Nebraska is pitting lawmakers against their constituentsTrump says New York judge won’t let him attend son’s graduation, no ruling has been madeBusiness boom: Record numbers of people are starting up new small businessesEcuador rations electricity as drought persists in the northern AndesLottery, gambling bill heads to Alabama legislative conference committee for negotiationsFormer Arkansas officer pleads guilty to civil rights violation in violent arrest caught on videoBrowns QB Deshaun Watson throwing full speed after shoulder surgery, timetable for return unknownCampaign to legalize abortion in Missouri raises nearly $5M in 3 months