Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova urge women's tennis to stay out of Saudi Arabia

Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are calling on the women's tennis tour to stay out of Saudi Arabia, saying that holding the WTA Finals there “would represent not progress, but significant regression.” “There should be a healthy debate over whether ‘progress’ and ‘engagement’ is really possible,” the two star players, who were on-court rivals decades ago, wrote in an op-ed piece printed in The Washington Post on Thursday, “or whether staging a Saudi crown-jewel tournament would involve players in an act of sportswashing merely for the sake of a cash influx.” Saudi Arabia began hosting the men’s tour’s Next Gen ATP Finals for top 21-and-under players in Jedda last year in a deal that runs through 2027.

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