The Women’s Tennis Association announced the creation of a new maternity support initiative for players on Thursday, with funds coming directly from the Saudi Arabian government and its public investment funds.
Using the PIF WTA Maternity Fund, the organization says players will “have their first 12 months of paid maternity leave and have access to grants for fertility treatments to build families.”
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Benefits will be reportedly provided to more than 320 eligible players. The WTA says, “It is the first time women’s sports have made it available to self-employed athletes to have access to a wide range of obstetric benefits.
Former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, representative of the WTA Player Council, welcomed the fund through the WRA.
“We are honored to showcase this program, promote it and enable players to support PIF and WTA. This marks the beginning of a meaningful change in how women can support in tennis, making it easier for athletes to pursue their careers and desire to start a family.
The programme is another step in partnership with WTA with governments known worldwide for oppression of women and the LGBTQ community. The WTA rankings, like ATP, are sponsored by PIF, and last year the WTA Tour Final was held in Riyadh, helping PIF Money increase its prize pool to over $15 million. The event will return to Riyadh in 2025 and 2026.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly criticised WTA’s Saudi relations. Tennis legends Chris Ebert and Martina Navratilova were equally important, but in Saudi Arabia, they were imprisoned as open lesbians and, worse, Billy Jean King, founder of the WTA, who called the issue “hard” thing.
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WTA CEO Portia Archer said in the WTA release that she is “pleasant” with the new partnership and avoided questions about the partner in an interview Monday.
“Questions about Saudi society are not really questions for me or the WTA. They are questions that Saudi people are for answering.”
The release mentioned how PIF and WTA have a common ambition to help grow professional women tennis, inspire more women and girls around the world to film games, and help female athletes deal with some of the challenges they face.
Of course, the WTA is not just accepting Saudi Arabia’s money. Through the BreakAway LIV Golf Tour, far more funds have flowed into the sport of golf, with prominent soccer, boxing, MMA, horse racing and Formula 1 races being held in the country in recent years.
But in this case, money is explicitly moving towards supporting female athletes in areas where support is prominent.
