NextGen Finals director Daniel Vallverdu praises Saudi Arabia’s investment in the competition, advocates their involvement for more events 

Saudi Arabia to be a huge investor in tennis.

NextGen Finals director Daniel Vallverdu praises Saudi Arabia’s investment in the competition, advocates their involvement for more events 

Daniel Vallverdu (Via Daily Mail)

NextGen Finals is one of the best tournaments for players who are 21 and below. It is a tournament that brings out the future of tennis, and that player has mostly done well to rise even higher.

Over the years, the tournament has seen winners like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and even Stefanos Tsitsipas. Recently, the world saw a new winner in the form of Serbian Hamad Medjedovic.

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The director of this tournament, Daniel Vallverdu, shares a few thoughts about Saudi Arabia being one of the investors in the competition. He remains confident that Saudi Arabia can see them integrating into tennis. 

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Seeing a country that wants to invest in our sport, that makes this sport a priority, it’s positive, yes. Why wouldn't it be? We would like this to be the case everywhere. You have to do things intelligently, not be blinded. It is about determining how Saudi Arabia can integrate into the tennis ecosystem. So far it’s been very positive so I don’t see why we shouldn’t continue in this direction.
 Said the director of NextGen via We Love Tennis

However, players are still not comfortable playing in Saudi Arabia, and many are even opposing the idea of playing there.

Tennis players divided on thoughts about Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has a huge reputation around the world due to its oil supplies. The country has been after other sports like football, f1, golf, and more, and with the likes of them, it seems like tennis is next. However, due to the government, human rights issues, and sexist issues, many people think twice before going there to play games. 

John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova
John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova (via Fresher’s live, NBC)

Over the past few months, players have shared their opinions on Saudi Arabia. It started with big names like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova opposing going to Saudi Arabia to play tennis. 

Even John McEnroe thinks that tennis would not benefit from Saudi Arabia and doesn’t need it. Navratilova, however, was very confident that she wouldn’t be going to Saudi Arabia for any tournament. 

The WTA Finals were supposed to take place in Saudi Arabia, but with many players refusing to fly to that country, it got shifted. However, it won’t be long before Saudi Arabia places a foot in the world of tennis. As of now, the director is considering Saudi Arabia’s investments and thinks that they might benefit the sport.

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