Former US Open champion Coco Gauff‘s coach Brad Gilbert speaks positively about the Saudi Arabian influence on tennis. Recently, Saudi Arabia has been trying their best to make tennis popular in the country. For that, they have appointed Spanish legend Rafael Nadal as the brand ambassador of the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation. This decision by Nadal received a lot of flak from the tennis fraternity as they believed such influence would hamper the integrity of the sport.

In such a complicated environment, Gauff’s head coach Brad Gilbert spoke in favor of Rafael Nadal’s decision and tried to show how this might help the tennis scene to grow further in the future.

Brad Gilbert hopes ‘some good will come’ with Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in the professional tennis scene

In a recent podcast, Brad Gilbert expressed his bits about the Saudi Arabian connection in professional tennis. Gilbert said- “In the last five years the prize money has fallen off a cliff compared to Gauff. And obviously you know there’s an issue with Saudi Arabia you know but hopefully that some good will come from this and now that Rafael is ambassador for Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation.”

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Gilbert continued to talk about the hopeful future as he added, “So, let’s hope that things are getting better and this partnership will do a lot of good for tennis and maybe some other parts of tennis for the pinching plans and other players.” 

Brad Gilbert’s comment tries to show the fraternity about the positive things. However, many WTA players argue that the country’s rigid policy might impact the comfort of female tennis players while attending tournaments there. But then again, from Swiatek to Osaka, many renowned WTA players are frequently attending Middle Eastern tennis tournaments.

Read More: Rafael Nadal’s Uncle Toni Justifies His Saudi Arabia Deal With a Peculiar Example From Spain’s Franco Era

This brings hope for female players to look forward to better things if Saudi Arabia keeps moving forward in influencing the tennis scene. Amid all these, ATP proceeds further in collaborating with Saudi Arabia for the betterment of tennis.

Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund makes a multi-year strategic collaboration with the ATP

Recently, the ATP signed a multi-year strategic partnership with the PIF of the country. After this, the PIF will be responsible for naming the rankings of the male tennis players. It will also partner with the ATP for prestigious tournaments like the BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open, Beijing Open, Madrid Open, and ATP finals.

Saudi Arabian PIF will also host the next-gen ATP finals in Jeddah. Despite many players calling it the ‘sportswash’ of the oil money, some people are focusing on the development of tennis because of this deal.

Brad Gilbert’s comment on the Saudi Arabian influence in tennis showed that this legendary coach expects Nadal to utilize his position in Saudi Arabia to help the tennis scene. Nevertheless, fans need to wait and see how this partnership between the country and the ATP will benefit the sport.

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