Carlos Alcaraz was asked about possible Saudi Arabia's involvement in the ATP Tour, and he answered as always, honestly.
The 20-year-old Spaniard is one of the biggest names in tennis and quite likely might be the face of the sport for the next 10-15 years which is good news for Saudi Arabia and their rumoured move to buy into tennis.
For quite some while there have been rumours about Saudi Arabia trying to buy into tennis with their almost endless resources. The country doesn't have an extensive history in tennis but tennis has been played in the vicinity of the country for a long time so tennis players are quite familiar with the area.
Plenty of players take part in events there every year and the Diriyah Tennis Cup in Saudi Arabia has seen plenty of the top players taking part since it was established as well. The main incentive is obviously money with those off-season events featuring some of the biggest prize pools outside of Grand Slams.
The less glamorous side to all of this is something which many human rights organisations term sports washing. They are concentrated efforts by countries with allegedly questionable human rights records to clean up their image by hosting lavish sports ceremonies. Hence why participation in those events has been heavily criticised by fans and human rights organizations around the world.
Saudi Arabia as a country has been heavily investing in sports for a while and it was only a matter of time before its sights turned to tennis. According to reports, it's coming fairly soon and in some ways, it's already happened with the Next Gen ATP Finals reportedly being held in the country this year. Some players have taken a firm stance against playing in the country though it's not an issue for Alcaraz.
And the second question, I mean, I think they have the power, you know, to have a lot of tournaments. I don't know. I have never played a tournament, an official tournament over there. But, you know, let's see how is gonna be in the future, but, well, I have no doubts that I will play over there in the future.
0 Comments