“We chose Riyadh after several months of careful consideration of several offers and also after consultation with the players,” the WTA said. This year’s Tournament of Champions will take place from November 2 to 9.
Last year, the Tournament of Champions was held in the criticized Cancún. The promoter informed Tomáš Petera about the move to Riyadh in mid-March, who applied to be the organizer now and last season. He wanted to hold the tournament this year in Ostrava and the next three years in Prague.
Already in January, famous tennis players Martina Navrátilová and Chris Evertová spoke out against moving the tournament to Saudi Arabia. They pointed to human rights violations or discrimination against women and homosexuals in this Muslim country.
