Saudi Fury at Criticism from Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

THE TELEGRAPH: Former champions had published open letter calling on the WTA not to stage a tennis tournament in the country

Saudi Arabia has told Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova to “get their facts straight” amid an escalating row about the nation’s increasing profile in tennis.
The Saudi ambassador to the US hit out after the two tennis greats wrote that the country was an incompatible choice as host for the next WTA Finals.

In a jointly-authored Washington Post column last week, the pair said that “the WTA’s values sit in stark contrast to those of the proposed host”.

The WTA came close to staging the 2023 Finals in Saudi, before going to Cancun in Mexico. However, the WTA is now believed to be close to moving the season-ending event to Riyadh for future tournaments.

“Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country where the current landscape includes a male guardianship law that essentially makes women the property of men,” says Evert and Navratilova’s article in the latest in a string of attacks on Saudi’s prospective investments in the sport. The pair add that Saudi Arabia “criminalises the LGBTQ community to the point of possible death sentences” and the country’s “long-term record on human rights and basic freedoms has been a matter of international concern for decades.” » | Tom Morgan, Sports News Correspondent | Tuesday, January 30, 2024 [£]

What is Saudi doing about gay rights? Are the authorities going to continue to punish gays severely and possibly put them to death simply for being attracted to people of the same sex, and for loving them? – © Mark Alexander