Saudi Arabia's PIF, ATP tour agree to five-year sponsorship - ESPN

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the men's professional tennis tour have agreed to a five-year partnership that includes naming rights for the ATP rankings, the latest move by the kingdom into that sport and others.

The ATP already had a deal that placed its Next Gen ATP Finals — a tournament for players 21 and under — in Jeddah from 2023 through 2027. The arrangement announced Wednesday includes courtside branding for the PIF at the season-ending ATP Finals and tournaments in Indian Wells, California; Miami, Madrid and Beijing.

Pepperstone had sponsored the ATP rankings since 2022.

ATP chief executive Massimo Calvelli called the new agreement «a major moment for tennis,» and the tour's announcement touted ways in which it hopes the sport will continue to grow in Saudi Arabia.

Tennis has been consumed lately by the debate over whether the sport should follow golf and others in making deals with the wealthy kingdom, where 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.

The WTA women's tennis tour has been in negotiations to partner with Saudi Arabia, including possibly placing its season-ending WTA Finals there.

«As part of our plans to grow the value of women's tennis, we regularly speak to both existing and potential commercial partners about possible new forms of collaboration. While we don't rule anything out for the future, there is no new update at this time,» a WTA spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday.

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are among those who have urged the WTA to stay out of Saudi Arabia, while another former star player and Hall of Famer, equal rights pioneer