A prominent and respected tennis journalist has reported on where the 2022 WTA Finals will be played.
There had been much uncertainty about where the season-ending tournament would be played because of the cancellation of all tournaments in Asia on the WTA Tour for the third year in a row.
All events in the country were postponed in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. China had and continues to have much stricter lockdown restrictions than most other jurisdictions worldwide.
The WTA Tour will not have any tournaments in China once again this year. Peng Shuai's sudden disappearance after making serious accusations against Zhang Gaoli, a member of the Chinese Communist Party has soured relations with the country.
WTA chief executive Steve Simon cited concerns about Shuai's safety as the reason for not playing in the country. However, China's COVID-19 restrictions meant tennis would not have been played there anyway, making some question how genuine the WTA is.
After the WTA Finals were held in Singapore from 2014 until 2018, it moved to the Chinese city of Shenzhen in 2019. The pandemic restrictions meant the event was canceled in 2020, while it was played in Guadalajara in Mexico last year.
Garbine Muguruza beat Anett Kontaveit, who was beaten by Serena Williams at the ongoing US Open, to win last year's WTA Finals. Tournaments in China still being canceled means a new venue is needed again this year.
Jon Wertheim, a respected journalist, has reported that the prestigious season-ending tournament will be played at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The capacity of the arena is more than 12,000 people.
Hopefully, the venue will have enough time to market the tournament well and attract a big crowd. The top players in the women's game deserve that since the standard of the WTA Tour in 2022 has been superb since the start of the year.