The female tennis paradox: maternity leave … sponsored by Saudi money

Saudi Arabia continues expanding its networks about elite sport and, in that sense, more than juicy the tennis cake, ideal platform for projection: globality, Non-Stop and builder of historical legends and stories, in addition to the enviable economic structure that articulates it. That is, money calls money, and there is the country of East Medio deepening and gaining market share in both circuit, that of the boys and that of the girls, from the ATP to the WTA. As much as it has resisted, the latter has also ended up succumbing to the oil charms that come from the Persian Gulf and, consequently, progressively opening the door to the entrance of the Arab capital. Now announces a “pioneer initiative” that “which provides financial support and comprehensive resources to the players to begin or expand their families.” It has names and surnames: PIF WTA Maternity Fund. And here is the key to the first acronyms, the Public Investment Fund of the Saudis.

According to the agency, the tennis players “will receive for the first time a paid maternity leave of up to 12 months and will have access to subsidies for fertility treatments to form families, as well as other benefits.” At the same time, he states that he will offer benefits to 320 professionals and that the program is “the first and unique in women’s sport that is fully financed and backed by an external partner.” That is, the PIF, whose logo looks very large for some of the most important clues in the world since recent times. Last year, the ATP and the Saudi Investment Fund announced a “strategic” agreement of several years with the objective of “accelerating the growth of world tennis”, which meant only the starting point for a soterrado plan that is charging more and more way – Rafael Nadal as an ambassador, the Cup of Promise Masters in Yeda, sponsorship of the ranking Male, millionaire exhibitions in riad or presentation of the delivery of the number one at the end of the course, among other formulas – and now continues to promote the WTA.

The female organism allied with Arabia three months after the masculine did, in May 2024, and today expresses his pride in exercising a “transformative role”, reinforced with a program that “empowers the tennis players” and that also aims to “equity in the sport of elite”, as well as “inspire more women and girls from all They face the players. ” In that line, it intends that the initiative allow tennis players to “return to the same level up to three years after having given birth, or up to two years after another medium of paternity, such as guardianship.” That is, resort to protected rankingsomething that actually has been applied in the WTA since 2019 so that professionals (without fixed salary) do not lose status during the period of leave and could access up to 12 tournaments on their return. Today there are 25 players integrated in the WTA who are mothers, including first level figures such as the Japanese Naomi Osaka.

At the time, however, the American Serena Williams could not benefit from that protection and her return after being a mother for the first time (2018) had lost more than 400 positions in the world list. His case was decisive to maneuver. The same happened to the veteran Victoria Azarenka, who at 35 is still active and then had to face a capital sports challenge to re -teach. He is now the main representative of the Players Council and blesses the agreement between the WTA and the Saudis under the economic support of the PIF. “It’s an incredible opportunity for us,” he says. “This marks the beginning of a significant change in the way in which women are supported in tennis, making it easier for us to continue our careers,” prolongs the Belarusian. “Creates a more inclusive environment and aligns with the vision, purpose and values ​​of PIF,” says the director of events and sponsorships of the Arab Fund, Alanoud Althonayan.

“Pure ‘Marketing”

From Amnesty International the initiative is valued, “Welcome”, but the bottom of it is questioned when considering it another tool in the bleaching strategy carried out by Saudi Arabia through sport (Sportswashing). “If there really was a real will to change, they should start with structural issues, serious and real measures. If you have to start with something, it is to recognize the real situation of the woman there; They are still second and mistreated citizens, subject to the orders of the male and confined in the houses, imprisoned to defend human rights. This does not relieve the situation of discrimination, ”sources consulted by this newspaper transmit. “It’s pure marketinganother attempt to wash your image. They are still droplets in the desert. They try to exhibit an image of progressivism that is not such, but false. Sport is a great amplifier of the message and are using it. They are getting the country talk normally, and it is not. They are buying the message, ”they add.

Amnesty International defines Saudi Arabia as one of the most bloodthirsty states in the world and points out that “the WTA should also worry about the situation of Saudi women, who cannot even, for example, abandon a reception center against gender violence without the permission of a legal guardian, which can even be the same that has attacked it.” The organization does not have data on maternity leave or the number of working women in the Arab country, given the “informative opacity” of its authorities and that the sources “are not reliable”; In any case, he says that “it is easy to assume that Saudi women do not have a remunerated maternity leave.” It affects the persuasive and masking power of sport, and remember that “in its day the fact that public bathrooms for women” in the stadium for the Spanish Soccer Super Cup were already sold as an advance.

There are already a few sports who have accepted the Arab check and, after euphemisms and rodeos for a five years, tennis has definitely decided to nurture the Saudi millions. The female staging was symbolized by the latest edition of the Cup of Teachers, first held in Riyadh after several removals. There, in the bubble in which the players usually move during the tournaments – generally from the club to the hotel and the hotel to the club, except some sporadic departure for gastronomic experiences or tourism – the eight participants underlined the good treatment and an apparent situation of normality, although before their landing they predominated among them the uncertainty. No criticism. Thanks even. Samivacia.

Spirit and incompatibility

“I love playing here, they are making a great effort to improve the lives of women,” said the current number one, the Belarusa Aryna Sabalenka. Before the landing of the WTA in Arabia, the tennis players shunned to talk about the subject, or issued vague or neutral responses. “I have only heard positive things and here we are. It is a new country for us, a new market that is welcoming us, ”the Word Finals director, the Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, gave us a great agency. “We have no decision power,” said the Pole IgA Swiatek. Only the Russian Daria Kasatkina unmarked, although she participated in the contest due to a decline: “It is easier for men because they feel quite well there, let’s say. We don’t feel the same. Money sends in our world right now, but for me not everything depends on money; Unfortunately, not everything depends only on us, or particularly on me. ”

The WTA defends its presence there as one more contribution to favor the change, under the argument of the integrating factor of the sport and that the isolation does not help, in the line of what Nadal wields. The iconic Billie Jean King, a historic activist in pursuit of gender equality and fundamental architect in the foundation of the organism along with eight other representatives, in 1973, preaches that idea and defines as “inevitable” the link with Arabia for the current tendency, while claiming “commitment” and “inclusion.” On the other hand, two other tennis emblems such as Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have expressed a frontal opposition at all times, with the publication of a text in The Washington Post in which they denounced the bond to be “incompatible with the spirit of female tennis.” And the last slide during the reception of the Laureus Awards in Madrid: “What will be the following, go to North Korea?”