cycling tour of saudi arabia 2023

Saudi Tour 2023

Latest news from the race.

Ruben Guerreiro survives gravel roads to win Saudi Tour

Guerreiro tops Formolo and Buitrago to win Saudi Tour stage 4

Søren Wærenskjold wins stage 3 of Saudi Tour

Saudi Tour 2023

All you need to know about the Saudi Tour, with race results, rider updates and general information

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Where : Saudi Arabia

When : 30 January - 3 February 2023

Distance : 830km

Rank : Asia Tour

The Saudi Tour is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's foray into hosting a professional bike race, following the likes of the UAE and Oman. This is its third edition, and the second that is centred around AlUla, which is close to UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“The general desire is to highlight all the sites of the AlUla region designated by UNESCO," route director Jean-Marc Marino said.

Phil Bahaus (Bahrain-Victorious) won the opening edition in 2020, before Lotto-Soudal's Maxim van Gils won last year. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) won sprints on the way to Van Gils' overall win. 

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Saudi Tour route

Stage one is a largely flat affair, from AlUla International Airport to Khaybar. The 180.5km stage is set up to finish in a sprint, with two intermediate sprints and a bonus second sprint en-route to the finish.

Stage two, north of AlUla, heads from the Winter PArk to Shalal Sijlyat Rocks; at 184km long, this again is one for the fast men,

Stage three will offer the puncheurs something to race for, as they ride from Al Manshiyah Train Station to Abu Rakah. The new course features a 1.5km slope at an average of 8.5% followed by a flat kilometer to finish, different to the similar finish where Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) won last year.

The penultimate day, stage four, will again be a punchy finish, as the riders race 163.4km from Maraya to Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid. The final consists of a 2.8km long ascent at 12% with a section at 22% preceding the final 7km, on a plateau offering a lunar landscape.

Stage five, from AlUla Old Town to Maraya features gravel, a first for the Saudi Tour, through the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra. The 7.5km long section could prove decisive. 

Stage details

Stage 1: AlUla International Airport - Khaybar (180.5km)

Stage 2: Winter Park – Shalal Sijlyat Rocks, (184 km)

Stage 3:Al Manshiyah Train Station - Abu Rakah (159.2 km)

Stage 4: Maraya - Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid (163.4km)

Stage 5: AlUla Old Town - Maraya (142.9 km)

Recent winners

2020: Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-McLaren)

2022: Maxim van Gils (Lotto-Soudal)

Watch the Saudi Tour

It is expected Eurosport and GCN Race Pass will broadcast the 2023 Saudi Tour.

You'll find the TV guide here when details become available.

Official race links

Saudi Tour official website

Saudi Tour official Twitter feed

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Adam is Cycling Weekly ’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling on tarmac, he's happy. Before joining Cycling Weekly he spent two years writing for Procycling, where he interviewed riders and wrote about racing. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds. Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.

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Saudi Tour 2023: Schedule, Stages, Course, Live Stream

The 3 rd edition of Saudi Tour is announced to return this Monday in Al-Ula. Here you can find latest details related to the schedule, venue, and streaming info of the upcoming Saudi Tour 2023 cycling event.

The Tour of Saudi Arabia is currently titled “Saudi Tour”. It is an annual professional road-bicycle racing event held under the authorization of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The event is a part of the UCI Continental Circuit’s Asian Tour series.

While The Saudi Arabia-based tour was initially staged in 1999, it became a regular part of the UCI Asia Tour in 2020. The upcoming 2023 Tour of Saudi Arabia will be the 3 rd official iteration of the event. This year’s event is being promoted by the Amaury Sport Organization.

There will be five different stages in this year’s Saudi Tour. A total of 16 professional road cycling teams will participate in the event. The participating teams contain 7 professional participants in each.

When will be Saudi Tour 2023 be held?

• Start Date: Monday, January 30, 2023
• Time: 06:30 a.m. ET

The latest iteration of the Tour of Saudi Arabia is scheduled to begin this Monday, January 30, 2023. The first stage will commence at 06:30 a.m. ET on the first day and end around 08:30 a.m. ET.

Saudi Tour 2023 Schedule:

Where will the event be held.

• Location: Saudi Arabia

The upcoming Tour of Saudi Arabia 2023 is planned to be held in 5 different stages over 5 days. The stages and their description are listed below –

How to watch the Saudi Tour 2023 on TV?

The official organizers of the Saudi Tour 2023 have announced multiple broadcast partnerships with media channels in various countries to provide fans with live tv broadcasts of the upcoming cycling event. These are listed below –

• SBS – Australia
• FloBikers – Canada
• L’Equipe – France
• JSports – Japan
• NBCUni – USA
• Sports Channel Network – UK

How to Live Stream the event?

The definitive online cycling streaming platform, Global Cycling Network or GCN will provide live stream of all the stages from the upcoming Saudi Tour 2023 event. With a GCN+ subscription, live streams of the event can be accessed from any international location.

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Simon Yates delivers at AlUla Tour

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Born GreenEdge in 2012, the Australian team did not wait to enter into a partnership with the historic region of AlUla to find success in Saudi Arabia since Dylan Groenewegen, in his first race in the colours of Team BikeExchange-Jayco, in February 2022, won the third and fifth stages of the Saudi Tour, as well as the points classification. Last year, the Dutchman...

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Sprint (74.5 km)

Bonification sprint (123.5 km), sprint (155 km), points at finish, youth day classification, team day classification, race information.

• Date: 01 February 2023
• Start time: 12:35 (10:35 CET)
• Avg. speed winner: 36.278 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 159.2 km
• Points scale: 2.1.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WR.1.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 25
• Vert. meters: 1473
• Departure: Al Manshiyah Train Station
• Arrival: Abu Rakah
• Race ranking: 131
• Startlist quality score: 160
• Won how: Sprint of small group
• Avg. temperature: 17 °C

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6th edition General classification 30 January 2023 - 3 February 2023

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2023 UCI cycling calendar | 2023 Saudi Tour

2023 saudi tour.

Took place from Monday 30 January 2023 till Friday 03 February 2023 .

In the UCI calendar ...

• takes place in Saudi Arabia
• is part of the Asia Tour 2023

Result / Final classification

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Saudi Tour News

Read all the latest news about Saudi Tour

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2023 Saudi Tour LIVE STREAM

2023 Saudi Tour  LIVE STREAM

Saudi Tour 2023 – stage 5 (AlUla Old Town – Maraya 142.9km) LIVE STREAM : Friday, 03 February, starts at 13:00pm Central Europe, 07:00am U.S. Eastern

RACE STARTLIST HERE

Saudi tour 2023 – stage 5 profile: favourites for the stage win:.

* ****  Jonathan Milan ****  Dylan Groenewegen ***  Cees Bol, Søren Wærenskjold ** Max Walscheid, Luka Mezgec, Max Kanter *  Dusan Rajovic, Simone Consonni, Pascal Ackermann

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Saudi Arabia's futuristic $500 billion Neom megacity just got a lot smaller... for now, report says

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Saudi Arabia has cut estimates for people living in its $500 billion Neom project.

Its government hoped the futuristic "The Line" city would hold 1.5 million by 2030.

Now, fewer than 300,000 are expected to live there by then, officials said, per Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia has cut estimates for the number of people living in its Neom megacity project by 2030.

Its government had previously said it wanted 1.5 million residents to be moved into the project's futuristic city, "The Line," by then, Bloomberg reported.

But that number is now likely to be fewer than 300,000, the Bloomberg report said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Billed as a "cognitive city," The Line is set to stretch over 170 kilometers (roughly 105 miles) of desert to the Red Sea in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

But just 2.4 kilometers (around 1.5 miles) of that is expected to be completed by 2030, the person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The $500 billion Neom megacity, which will cover 26,500 square kilometers (just over 10,200 square miles), is part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil and pivot toward tech and innovation.

It is set to feature glow-in-the-dark beaches, ski slopes, an artificial moon, robot butlers, and flying taxis, according to glossy brochures and public statements by its planners .

But human rights activists have raised fears that the grandiose plans reflect not just Crown Prince Mohammed's ambition but his refusal to tolerate challenges to his power.

Experts told Business Insider in 2023 that the city could be fitted with Chinese technology to gather data on residents as part of a sweeping surveillance program. Others raised concern about the harsh punishments meted out to Saudi critics of the project, with Business Insider reporting last year that a woman was jailed for 30 years for criticizing the plans on social media.

Neom is just one of several "gigaprojects" underway as part of this plan.

The country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), its sovereign wealth fund, has long shouldered the large financial burden imposed by such projects — which are estimated to run at tens of billions of dollars each.

But the PIF said in January that its cash as of September had dropped to the lowest level since December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported.

And that has forced the government to turn to a tactic it hasn't used for a long time to boost its funds — borrowing, per the report. It has also been reported that the kingdom plans to sell more shares in the state oil company Saudi Aramco this year.

The Saudi ruler has used a range of tactics to rebuild his global influence and reshape Saudi Arabia since the 2018 murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, which almost resulted in him being made a pariah on the world stage.

Alongside economic megaprojects, Saudi Arabia has also thrown money into other areas, such as sports.

The Guardian estimated in July 2023 that the kingdom had spent at least $6.3 billion on sports deals since 2021, from funding a giant merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to prying a host of global soccer stars away from European leagues on huge salaries.

"It's mind-boggling the amount of stuff that's trying to be done here," Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute think tank, told The Journal.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Saudi Arabia will host the women's tennis WTA Finals for the next three years

Saudi Arabia will host the WTA Finals as part of a three-year deal announced Thursday by the women’s professional tennis tour that will increase the prize money for this November’s season-ending championship to a record $15.25 million, a 70% increase from 2023.

The event for the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams will be held in Riyadh from 2024-26, part of a recent wave of investment by the kingdom in tennis and various sports, despite questions about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights there raised by Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and others.

“We’re going into this eyes wide open that the investment in sport by Saudi certainly provokes strong views from people,” WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Steve Simon told The Associated Press. “We’ve met with Chris and Martina and listened to their concerns and we have shared their concerns through our stakeholders as well, without prejudice. We’ve also shared the concerns around women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights within the Kingdom of Saudi. Our focus is on how we develop women’s tennis for the benefit of everybody involved in the game. The reality of it is ... we are truly a global tour, a global business. We have players from over 90 nations now. We have over 90 events. ... We participate in many countries that have different cultures and values systems across the board.”

As for any concerns about Saudi Arabia that current players might have, Simon said: “We don’t plan to do any persuading. The players need to make their own choices, and we do believe that everyone who qualifies is going to want to play.”

Locations in Europe, North America and Asia also were considered as possible new sites for the WTA Finals, which have moved around to five cities over the past five editions after a deal to put the tournament in Shenzhen, China, through 2030 was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and concerns over the safety of retired Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai , who accused a Chinese government official of rape.

The cities that hosted in 2022 (Fort Worth, Texas) and 2023 (Cancun, Mexico) were not revealed until September each year, and last November’s event was strongly criticized by players . Four-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek beat Jessica Pegula in last year's title match ; U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff and Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka were among the other participants.

Simon said Riyadh was selected by the WTA in late December, but the details of the agreement were just completed.

“This partnership will build on our exposure to a market and a region whose impact on the sports industry is certainly growing rapidly,” Simon said. “We certainly expect that you’ll see more events coming there in the future. So at the end, we believe that the WTA should be a part of this development, versus being on the outside.”

Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) formed the LIV Golf tour and put money into soccer, for example, and the kingdom’s role in tennis has been rising. The ATP Tour moved its Next Gen Finals for leading 21-and-under players to Jedda in November; the PIF is the title sponsor for the men’s rankings; 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal recently became an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation; he will join 24-time major champ Novak Djokovic and rising stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at an exhibition event in Riyadh in October. There have been discussions about placing a top-tier Masters 1000 tournament in Saudi Arabia, too, part of a possible larger restructuring involving the WTA, ATP and the country.

Rights groups say women continue to face discrimination in most aspects of family life and homosexuality is a major taboo, as it is in much of the rest of the Middle East.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has enacted wide-ranging social reforms, including granting women the right to drive and largely dismantling male guardianship laws that had allowed husbands and male relatives to control many aspects of women’s lives. Men and women are still required to dress modestly, but the rules have been loosened and the once-feared religious police have been sidelined. Still, same-sex relations are punishable by death or flogging, though prosecutions are rare.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post in January, Evert and Navratilova urged the WTA to stay out of Saudi Arabia because, they wrote, staging the Finals there “would represent not progress, but significant regression” and asked whether “staging a Saudi crown-jewel tournament would involve players in an act of sportswashing merely for the sake of a cash influx.”

In response, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States , Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, said the two former athletes relied on “outdated stereotypes and western-centric views of our culture” and “turned their back on the very same women they have inspired and it is beyond disappointing.”

The ambassador joined the head of the Saudi Tennis Federation and other women in a video conference with current WTA athletes to “speak to the changes that are happening and to what still needs to be done within the region,” Simon said.

The WTA said the Finals prize money will help work to meet the tour’s pledge, made last year, to increase pay and put it in line with what men earn in tennis. The $15.25 million on offer from Nov. 2-9, 2024 — an amount set to increase in 2025 and 2026 — is up from last year’s $9 million and eclipses the event-high $14 million at Shenzhen in 2019.

Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich .

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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Saudi arabia will host the women’s tennis wta finals for the next three years.

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Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of several premier sponsors for the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, as seen on Stadium 2 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif., on March 14, 2024.

Taya Gray/The Desert Sun/Taya Gray/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK

Saudi Arabia will host the WTA Finals as part of a three-year deal announced by the women’s professional tennis tour that will increase the prize money for this November’s season-ending championship to a record $15.25 million, a 70% increase from 2023.

The event for the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams will be held in Riyadh from 2024-26, part of a recent wave of investment by the kingdom in tennis and various sports, despite questions about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights there raised by Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and others.

“We’re going into this eyes wide open that the investment in sport by Saudi certainly provokes strong views from people,” WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Steve Simon told The Associated Press. “We’ve met with Chris and Martina and listened to their concerns and we have shared their concerns through our stakeholders as well, without prejudice. We’ve also shared the concerns around women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights within the Kingdom of Saudi. Our focus is on how we develop women’s tennis for the benefit of everybody involved in the game. The reality of it is ... we are truly a global tour, a global business. We have players from over 90 nations now. We have over 90 events. ... We participate in many countries that have different cultures and values systems across the board.”

As for any concerns about Saudi Arabia that current players might have, Simon said: “We don’t plan to do any persuading. The players need to make their own choices, and we do believe that everyone who qualifies is going to want to play.”

Locations in Europe, North America and Asia also were considered as possible new sites for the WTA Finals, which have moved around to five cities over the past five editions after a deal to put the tournament in Shenzhen, China, through 2030 was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and concerns over the safety of retired Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai, who accused a Chinese government official of rape.

The cities that hosted in 2022 (Fort Worth, Texas) and 2023 (Cancun, Mexico) were not revealed until September each year, and last November’s event was strongly criticized by players. Four-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek beat Jessica Pegula in last year’s title match; U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff and Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka were among the other participants.

Simon said Riyadh was selected by the WTA in late December, but the details of the agreement were just completed.

“This partnership will build on our exposure to a market and a region whose impact on the sports industry is certainly growing rapidly,” Simon said. “We certainly expect that you’ll see more events coming there in the future. So at the end, we believe that the WTA should be a part of this development, versus being on the outside.”

Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) formed the LIV Golf tour and put money into soccer, for example, and the kingdom’s role in tennis has been rising. The ATP Tour moved its Next Gen Finals for leading 21-and-under players to Jedda in November; the PIF is the title sponsor for the men’s rankings; 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal recently became an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation; he will join 24-time major champ Novak Djokovic and rising stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at an exhibition event in Riyadh in October. There have been discussions about placing a top-tier Masters 1000 tournament in Saudi Arabia, too, part of a possible larger restructuring involving the WTA, ATP and the country.

Rights groups say women continue to face discrimination in most aspects of family life and homosexuality is a major taboo, as it is in much of the rest of the Middle East.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has enacted wide-ranging social reforms, including granting women the right to drive and largely dismantling male guardianship laws that had allowed husbands and male relatives to control many aspects of women’s lives. Men and women are still required to dress modestly, but the rules have been loosened and the once-feared religious police have been sidelined. Still, same-sex relations are punishable by death or flogging, though prosecutions are rare.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post in January, Evert and Navratilova urged the WTA to stay out of Saudi Arabia because, they wrote, staging the Finals there “would represent not progress, but significant regression” and asked whether “staging a Saudi crown-jewel tournament would involve players in an act of sportswashing merely for the sake of a cash influx.”

In response, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, said the two former athletes relied on “outdated stereotypes and western-centric views of our culture” and “turned their back on the very same women they have inspired and it is beyond disappointing.”

The ambassador joined the head of the Saudi Tennis Federation and other women in a video conference with current WTA athletes to “speak to the changes that are happening and to what still needs to be done within the region,” Simon said.

The WTA said the Finals prize money will help work to meet the tour’s pledge, made last year, to increase pay and put it in line with what men earn in tennis. The $15.25 million on offer from Nov. 2-9, 2024 — an amount set to increase in 2025 and 2026 — is up from last year’s $9 million and eclipses the event-high $14 million at Shenzhen in 2019.

WTA Finals to be held in Saudi Arabia from 2024-2026 with record prize money

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Real Madrid held at home in six-goal thriller against Man City

Real Madrid and Manchester City slugged out a thrilling 3-3 draw in a rip-roaring Champions League quarter-final clash under the Bernabeu stadium roof on Tuesday, leaving the tie between the last two holders of the trophy wide open for the second leg.

PGA Tour sold out to LIV Golf and the Saudis. Pro golf will never be the same.

In less than a year, the saudis went from disruptors to forcing a complete capitulation that laid the pga tour’s moral high ground to waste. from top to bottom, they own professional golf now..

Editor's note: For the latest on the LIV Golf and PGA Tour merger, follow USA TODAY Sports' live updates here.

Frauds, all of them. But frauds now united in the only thing that actually matters to the world of professional golf: Making money. 

In the end, it didn’t actually matter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that the money came from a country, Saudi Arabia, that treats human rights like an inconvenience. The tradition and history of the PGA Tour, in fact, didn’t matter all that much to those who argued that LIV Golf was an unworthy, unserious rival whose guaranteed money and 54-hole events were mocking competition.

And as for the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Greg Norman, they did not, in fact, care all that much about growing the game. They wanted to own it. Now they do: The PGA Tour, brought to you by Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

They sold out. Professional golf will never be the same. 

MAJOR MOVE: PGA Tour, Saudi-backed LIV Golf announce merger in stunning move

Oh, you can already hear the preening and high-fiving from those even nicer private jets that have been paid for with Saudi oil. And why not?

A year ago, Monahan stood up in front of the world and argued that the way Saudi Arabia treats women, gay people and journalists should matter in a player's decision whether to jump at the guaranteed payday that came with a LIV invitation.

“I would ask any player that has left or any player that would consider leaving, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”

Today? Not so much. 

“We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights.”

World-class investing experience? Are we talking about the future of pro golf or shares of Vandalay Industries? 

In its stunning announcement Tuesday, the PGA Tour positioned it as a merger. On paper, it looks more like a hostile takeover.

The full details, and exactly what it means for golf fans, are lacking at this point. It’s clear from the immediate reaction of PGA Tour players on social media that this decision came from out of the blue and was made well above their pay grade.

SPEAKING OUT: Mickelson, Koepka, Morikawa, others react to PGA Tour, LIV Golf merger

“Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with,” world No. 67 Mackenzie Hughes said. 

Are the three entities still going to operate separately while being in business together? Will players go back and forth at will to play whatever tour they want in a given week? Or does the merger set up the top level pro golf as a globetrotting international tour that will regularly bring all the best players to Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe?

What does that mean for the mid-tier tournament in your hometown that brought thousands of tourists in for a weekend? What does it mean for television rights? And does it mean fans will now be subjected to more of LIV’s interminably boring team competition? 

There’s also the Donald Trump angle to figure out since the former president’s ties to LIV have been part of the Justice Department’s probe into his handling of classified documents, according to The New York Times. With his third bid for the presidency underway, Trump will no doubt be front and center claiming credit for the reunification of his favorite sport. 

From top to bottom, this is a solution that may indeed hold some benefits for players and fans. But underneath the hood, the details are guaranteed to be so unsavory you’d need a bottle of Maalox just to get through the day.

For the PGA Tour, though, it is undeniably the most convenient end game. With LIV’s limitless resources, the Saudis could muck things up with years of messy and expensive antitrust litigation, not to mention the ever-present threat of poaching more stars like Brooks Koepka. 

And any time the Saudis wanted to ratchet up the pressure, the PGA Tour was going to have to tap into reserves or hit up sponsors for more cash to keep the peace within its own ranks. 

Maybe Monahan and his employers saw an unending fight with no clear path to victory. Or maybe they just got tired of the fight. 

Either way, in less than a year, the Saudis went from disruptors to forcing a complete capitulation that laid the PGA Tour’s moral high ground to waste. From top to bottom, they own professional golf now. As was probably the intent all along, everyone else is just along for the ride. 

Saudi Arabia to host the WTA Finals for next three years and provide record prize money

• Published 5 days ago

Poland's Iga Swiatek won the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico

Saudi Arabia will host the WTA Finals for the next three years and offer record prize money of $15.25m (£12.04m).

The event, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams of the year, will be the highest-profile tennis tournament held in the country.

The WTA came close to staging the 2023 Finals in Saudi, before going to Cancun in Mexico.

This year's Finals will take place from 2 to 9 November in Riyadh.

The Next Gen ATP Finals, which features the best men under 21, was held in Saudi Arabia last year.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of using events to 'sportswash' its reputation amid accusations of violating human rights and restricting women's lives and freedom of speech.

Watch: Inside the Saudi Sporting Machine

In January, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert said hosting the WTA Tour's flagship event in the kingdom would be a "step backward" for women's tennis.

But the WTA chief executive Steve Simon says that by choosing Riyadh, women's tennis is "supporting significant change being made within the region".

"The WTA has been breaking down barriers for more than 50 years," Simon told BBC Sport.

"We want to create more opportunities for women to play tennis at the elite level, and I think by doing this, we believe that we can inspire more women and girls to get involved with the sport.

"We are a global sport. The WTA now has all of these events and people from around the world that do reflect different cultures and systems."

Is it 'right' for women's tennis to go to Saudi Arabia?

The WTA says it assessed "multiple bids from different regions" and evaluated potential hosts on three criteria, including support for the organisation's ambition to achieve equal prize money for women.

Prize money will rise to $15.5m (£12.24m) in 2025 and 2026, a significant increase on the $9m (£7.11m) prize fund offered at last year's heavily criticised Finals.

The WTA has pledged to introduce equal prize money at all bar the smallest events by 2033. By way of comparison, the prize fund at last year's ATP Finals in Turin was $15m (£11.84m).

WTA acknowledges challenge over crowds

Saudi Arabia has hosted exhibition events before - including a match between Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur in December - but had not staged an official tennis event before last November's Next Gen ATP Finals.

Even though the country has wider experience in hosting Formula 1, boxing and golf, crowds and atmosphere have often been hard to generate.

Attracting a crowd worthy of the WTA Finals will be a challenge, Simon admits.

"The presentation of the Next Gen event was very strong," he said.

"Attendance was lighter during the early rounds: it got better for the weekend, which is not uncommon for tennis.

"They do have a lot of experience of putting on world-class events in the region - Formula 1 is a good example - and one of the areas that we will have to work on with them, like we had to in China and in Singapore, is audience delivery. We have shown, with what we did in Singapore and in China, that we can do that."

Navratilova and Evert lead criticism

Criticism of the long-anticipated move to Saudi Arabia has been led by Navratilova and Evert, who wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post in January.

"Taking a tournament there would represent a significant step backward, to the detriment not just of women's sport, but women," the pair wrote.

Human Rights Watch told the BBC in December that Saudi courts had convicted people for promoting homosexuality online and added "LGBT people in Saudi Arabia have to practise extreme self-censorship to survive their daily lives".

Daria Kasatkina, who is in a same-sex relationship, is the only top player to have voiced opposition about a move to Saudi. Jabeur previously said she would be "very excited" to play in the country.

Critics say unprecedented spending on sport has been used to improve the oil-producing kingdom's reputation over its human rights record and its environmental impact.

But the Saudi government says the investment is boosting the economy, opening it up to tourism and inspiring people to be more active.

"We have had direct discussions with the players, and a couple of the trips we had over there we had some people join us from the LGBTQ+ community," Simon continued.

"We have also done a lot of research for some of the other sporting events that have been held over there, and they have only had positive experiences within the region."

Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport and President of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, says the announcement is a significant moment for the country.

"To have a women's tournament of this magnitude and profile is a defining moment for tennis in Saudi Arabia," said Al Faisal.

"The WTA Finals has the power to inspire far beyond the sport, especially for our young girls and women."

Arij Almutabagani, who in 2021 became the first woman elected to run one of the country's sports federations, said: "Everyone will be made to feel extremely welcome.

"Our country is moving forward. Much has been achieved already and many historic steps taken by women in all sectors in recent years, with sport driving much of the progress across our entire society.

"Hosting the WTA Finals is absolutely huge for the future of tennis in Saudi Arabia and growing sport in general, especially amongst our young girls. And that's entirely our focus, to inspire future generations of players and celebrate women's tennis."

Related Topics

Intrepid Launches Women-Led Tours In Saudi Arabia

Jesse Chase-Lubitz , Skift

April 4th, 2024 at 12:50 PM EDT

Intrepid’s new women-led tours in Saudi Arabia are about “focusing on the hosts, not just the travelers.”

Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Intrepid Travel has announced a women’s-only tour in Saudi Arabia — led by women, for women. 

The tour represents an effort to sidestep the luxury-focused travel industry in the country while giving travelers a more authentic experience and supporting the booming female labor force.

The launch follows several years of progress for Saudi women, who gained the right to drive in 2018 and to be tour guides in 2019. As the country seeks to become a leading travel destination, the percentage of women who make up the tourism workforce has skyrocketed to 45%.

“This shift had one positive effect, which is that it gave more rights to women,” said Zina Bencheikh, the managing director of EMEA for Intrepid Travel. “[This tour] effectively means that we can speak to women and we can meet women who own businesses, women guides, women who run restaurants.”

The 12-day adventure will bring travelers to female-owned establishments. “I think the beauty of traveling this way is to focus on the hosts, not just the travelers,” said Bencheikh.

Going Local, Not Luxury

The tour involves a family-owned citrus farm, rock formations, and giant tombs. Travelers will visit the holy site Medina, take a tour of Al-Balad in Jeddah with Saudi’s first female guide, and go on a cruise in the Red Sea.

Intrepid partnered with a local agent, Sara Omar, to design the trip. Omar has previously focused on planning trips for Saudi women to experience other parts of the world. Now, she’s helping Intrepid bring the world to Saudi women. 

“A lot of people think Saudi women are unable to do anything, that we’re not educated, that we don’t work. Meeting the locals is the best way to understand what the lifestyle is really like,” Omar said, according to Intrepid’s press release. 

The tour also taps into something that has been difficult for tour operators to breach in Saudi Arabia – local engagement. While the country has marketed themselves as a luxury destination, many travelers want a more authentic experience.

“I think the country has positioned their tourism in one part of the travel industry, which is that kind of more mainstream luxurious experience,” said Bencheikh. “But in my opinion, they are kind of missing the point. In all the reports we see that what people want is interaction with the local people.”

The Saudi tour is the latest in a series of women-led tours. Others include tours to India, Nepal, Morocco, Jordan and Pakistan, all of which have grown in popularity since their inception. 

These tours align with the travel experiences trends Intrepid is seeing, which show that female travelers above 50 are increasingly looking for solo meaningful experiences in lesser visited countries. 

Intrepid’s women-led trekking tour in Morocco launched in 2018 and now has 20 departures per year. “If you think about the economic impact for those women,” said Bencheikh. “Some of them never worked before and now they have a job that is paid for by doing something they enjoy.”

Bencheikh said that Intrepid is scoping for locations for new tours, and may have its eyes on Asia next. 

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Tags: intrepid travel , saudi arabia , Travel Experiences , women travelers

Photo credit: Sara Omar has helped Intrepid Travel design the women-led trip through Saudi Arabia Intrepid Travel