Italian tennis chief Angelo Binaghi takes swipe at Saudi Arabia after incredible ticket sales for 2023 ATP Finals

The dig comes amid rumors of Saudi Arabia getting to host an ATP Masters event from January 2025.

Italian tennis chief Angelo Binaghi takes swipe at Saudi Arabia after incredible ticket sales for 2023 ATP Finals

Angelo Binaghi takes a dig at Saudi Arabia (Images via FITB, Instagram)

Italian Tennis and Padel Federation president Angelo Binaghi took a swipe at Saudi Arabia as he revealed the record figures of the ticket sales for the 2023 ATP Finals. Binaghi while breaking down the sales from each foreign country took a subtle dig at Saudi Arabia which is touted to host a few ATP tournaments in the near future. Binaghi revealed that there was not even one ticket buyer from the Middle East country. 

Angelo Binaghi claimed that more than 96% of the total salable tickets for the 2023 ATP Finals were bought by tennis fans from across the globe. He further revealed the country-wise breakdown of the sold tickets.

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Binaghi revealed that out of the total sold tickets so far, 40.2% have been bought by foreign fans. However, there was not a single fan from Saudi Arabia who bought the tickets for the 2023 ATP Finals.

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Out of a total of 166,470 salable tickets we sold 160,612 (40.2% from abroad, from 95 different countries, nine more than last year, major buyers: Switzerland 4.46%, Germany 2.9%, England 2.79% and Brazil 2.72%, not even one from Saudi Arabia) equal to 96.5% of salable tickets.
Angelo Binaghi revealed about ticket sales for 2023 ATP Finals.

Angelo Binaghi thankful to ATP for choosing Turin to host 2023 ATP Finals

The Italian tennis chief further talked about Turin getting a chance to host the season-ending championships for a third consecutive year. Binaghi thanked the ATP officials for choosing Italy as the host country as he talked about tennis players getting bigger and bigger.

Atp-finals-2023
Snapshot from an ATP Finals match (Image via ATP)
It’s a celebration for our tennis players who are getting bigger and bigger. It is for the ATP who believed in us, giving us this opportunity. It is for those who supported us, the State, the Italian, and foreign sponsors who would like to do it even more but we no longer have space...Finally, it will be for all the players, whom we welcome.
The Italian tennis chief said.

Notably, Binaghi’s dig at Saudi Arabia comes amid rumors of the Middle Eastern country getting to host an ATP Masters event, starting January 2025. Saudi Arabia has already managed to get the hosting rights for this year’s ATP Next Gen Finals with the event running from November 28 to December 2 at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

Meanwhile, ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi has revealed that he held “positive” discussions with Saudi officials this year about a partnership and there are rumors that Riyadh could host an ATP Masters 1000 event in January 2025 with the tournament set to be a warm-up event for the Australian Open.

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