The year-ending championship in women’s tennis, the WTA Finals, is underway in Mexico. The top eight players of the season are grinding it hard to achieve glory and cap off the season on a high. While fans are enjoying the tournament, there is an interesting back-story about it. Before the venue for the WTA Finals was decided, there were talks circling in the media that the tournament would be held in Saudi Arabia. According to some reports, heavy funding from Saudi was expected if they were to host the tournament. However, that didn’t happen, and tennis legend Pam Shriver has hit back hard on the WTA.

The tennis community was divided as far as Saudi involvement was concerned. While some players backed the idea of the WTA Finals in that country, some were against it. Here’s what Pam Shriver has to say on this matter.

Pam Shriver hits back at the WTA

The 61-year-old was recently featured on The Tennis Podcast where she talked about various subjects. During that show, she also highlighted WTA’s plans to conduct the year-ending tournament in Saudi Arabia and how they failed to do it this time around.

Talking about it, she said, “I think they thought this, some people in the WTA thought this year’s championship would already be in Saudi Arabia, and then they realized that couldn’t have it. So it’s just it’s a mess. It’s an absolute mess.“

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Further, Shriver went on to add, “And I don’t know how to there’s some messes, it’s really hard to clean up. And I have this every week. Now as a parent of three teenagers. There’s some methods that are hard to clean up, and I don’t know how you clean this up.”

Not just Shriver, but also other legends have called out the WTA for involvement with Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, American legend, Chris Evert, also joined in criticizing the WTA.

Chris Evert couldn’t digest WTA’s links with Saudi too

The news about massive investment coming from Saudi Arabia into women’s tennis spread like wildfire on social media. Thousands of fans reacted to it and gave their opinions. It also caught the attention of Evert, who took a harsh stand against this move.

She took to Twitter and said, “The WTA is about equality. We have been leaders and role models in women’s sports. We have made decisions the last 50 years with integrity and dignity. We have empowered women…Take less money and do the right thing.”

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With plans not falling into place this year, it was eventually decided to conduct the tournament in the calamity-hit Mexico. Nonetheless, the possibility of the tournament being conducted in Saudi Arabia in the future cannot be ruled out. What are your views on the same? Share with us in the comments below.

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