Aryna Sabalenka recently played in Saudi Arabia, and she was delighted by the experience and confirmed that she would happily return.
Saudi Arabia has been making moves into tennis recently, and some tennis fans are not happy. The country had a bad reputation due to several different reasons, important reasons, but they have made steps to modernize recently.
Part of that effort is to showcase the country in a new light with multiple significant events planned. Sports is front and center of that as they are heavily investing and trying to bring some of the top sports and athletes into the country.
Tennis is among them, and we're likely to see a lot of tennis over there in the coming years. Quite a few big tennis players gave their endorsement of that, and the most recent one is Aryna Sabalenka.
She played an exhibition match in Riyadh against Ons Jabeur and, according to her own words, she just enjoyed the experience. Asked about the news of the WTA Finals possibly going there after her most recent win at the 2024 Australian Open, Sabalenka confirmed she'd be open to the idea.
"Yeah, it was amazing experience actually. I expected something different. They treated us really well. It was really amazing atmosphere on the stadium. People are really like sport people there."
"They really like tennis. The atmosphere was incredible. The level of hospitality was definitely way, way, way better than it was in Cancun. Yeah, I'm happy to go there."
Most recently, Rafael Nadal became the tennis ambassador for the country, and the fact that the sport is growing there is undeniable. However, the Spaniard's move created plenty of uproar in the tennis community.
It will be interesting to follow how the situation develops, but for now, the Next Gen ATP Finals is the only tournament played in the country.
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