“We can’t sit back”: Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova urge WTA to stay out of Saudi Arabia

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are linked in many ways.

Among the connections: they took tennis to another dimension when they dueled 80 times, the most matches ever played in a head-to-head series. They both finished with 18 major singles titles and completed Career Grand Slams. They are both cancer survivors and are currently fighting new reoccurrences in not making the trip down to the Australian Open.

And they are both united in their stance against the WTA doing business in Saudi Arabia.

While it appears to be a foregone conclusion that the women’s tennis tour will award its crown jewel event—the WTA Finals—to Riyadh this year, Evert and Navratilova are not backing down from making their opposition heard, believing it goes against everything that helped get the WTA off the ground in the first place.

In an open letter obtained and released by Sports Illustrated Tuesday, the pair of Hall of Famers ask Steve Simon, WTA board members, WTA Ventures board members, player councils and tournament councils to at a minimum, engage in a transparent discussion before finalizing the decision.

“We fully appreciate the importance of respecting diverse cultures and religions. It is because of this, and not in spite of it, that we believe allowing Saudi Arabia to host the WTA finals is entirely incompatible with the spirit and purpose of women’s tennis, and the WTA itself,” one section reads.

Further along their note, Evert and Navratilova assert, “Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country which criminalizes the LGBTQ community. A country whose long-term record on human rights and basic freedoms has been a matter of international concern for decades.”

Taking the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia would represent taking a significant step backwards.

READ THE FULL LETTER HERE

Over the past three years, the WTA has scrambled to finalize host city locations. While a September announcement three years ago that ultimately led to Guadalajara staging the 2021 edition was met with more understanding given the COVID-19 pandemic, the same could not be said for early September confirmations in 2022 (Fort Worth, Texas) and 2023 (Cancun).

This past November, the Next Gen ATP Finals made its debut in Jeddah after spending five years in Milan. A month later, the Riyadh Season Tennis Cup welcomed Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur for a two-day exhibition ahead of the 2024 season launching.