Arij Mutabagani: WTA Finals can spark tennis boom in Saudi Arabia

When the WTA Finals arrives in Riyadh later this year, it will do so as more than just a tennis tournament.

The Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) has laid out its ambitious target of having one million active players by 2030, and while much is already being done to work towards that goal, nothing is more effective in getting children to pick up a racquet than seeing the best players in the world up close.

They will get that opportunity in November when the eight best singles players and eight leading doubles teams descend on Riyadh for the season-ending tournament.

Tennis has been growing in Saudi in recent years; there are currently 177 tennis clubs, up 146 per cent since 2019. In the last four years, the number of registered players has increased by 46 per cent to 2,300 and under-14 players are up 100 per cent – from 500 to more than 1,000. The STF also now holds 40 national tournaments annually and will host seven ITF Juniors tournaments this year.

Now with the imminent arrival of the WTA Tour’s flagship event, which will be based in Riyadh for the next five editions, tennis will become an increasingly visible part of the kingdom’s sporting landscape.

STF president Arij Mutabagani remembers when it was very different. During her speech at the WTA Finals launch event in Riyadh on Wednesday, she recalled when there was only one tennis club and the tennis scene was, well, there wasn’t one.

“It’s a dream come true. The little child who played at 12 years old could never have imagined that something like this would come to Saudi Arabia,” Mutabagani told The National. “I’m really happy and honoured and proud to say that I lived to see the day that this is happening. It’s just amazing. I have no words to express that.”

The Finals and its stars are what will generate the headlines, but it’s the opportunity for the STF to super-charge its community initiatives and pathway programmes, thanks to its partnership with the WTA, that most excites Mutabagani.

“Bringing in these events, I would not say is the easy part, but it’s a good start to build on, to have a legacy after that,” she said. “First of all, we want to make sure these events will promote the sport, that they will push the new generation to get into the sport because tennis is new in Saudi Arabia.

“But also, that it will help us develop the whole tennis ecosystem by involving different talents, whether it’s officials or coaches or administrators – shadowing these people [from the WTA] who are organising these tournaments.

“Being around them will empower them and give them the experience that in the future they can run these events, because these events are going to leave eventually, but what they leave behind is important.”

The STF and the WTA have made an encouraging start with the smart appointment of Judy Murray as the WTA Finals Community Ambassador. The mother of Grand Slam champions Andy and Jamie Murray, who has a wealth of experience as a coach and of working in the community, will help lead and consult on the many grassroots projects taking place across Saudi now and into the future.

Former world No 1 Garbine Muguruza will also play an active role in driving the expansion of tennis in the kingdom having been appointed the WTA Finals tournament director. The two-time Grand Slam champion has been an active supporter of tennis in the Middle East over the years and can contribute plenty of knowledge and a large platform to help the STF achieve its goals.

All of this must be a bit of a shock to the system for the STF. It wasn’t until 2019 that Saudi hosted its first pre-season exhibition tournament for leading ATP players, the Diryah Cup, at a time when local participation levels were relatively low. Fast forward five years and the biggest tournament on the WTA Tour is coming to town and a target of one million active local players has been set.

Mutabagani insists that actually the ambitious expansion has benefitted her and her team “because it gave us the chance to move faster. We are forced to move faster. Having these big events is great but we are working parallel to develop our own talents so we can have more international events for the youth and more programs to develop the youth. Yes, it’s fast but it’s helped us go on the right track and develop in the right way.”

The STF does have recent experience hosting top-level professional tournaments having entered into a five-year deal with the ATP to host its NextGen Finals – the under-20 male equivalent of the WTA Finals.

“That helps a lot. It made us only aim higher and higher because we managed to have a great event, not only us believing in it but also the ATP were impressed at the level of the event,” Mutabagani said. “It was a learning curve, so we are hoping to replicate that but also push it to a higher level because the WTA Finals is an even more important event.

“And we’re learning,” she added. “It’s been a great learning experience and exciting because we are involving a lot of Saudi players, a lot of Saudi staff, and this will definitely help us improve to deliver better events in the future.”

Of course, the long-term, ultimate dream for Mutabagani is to see a Saudi player near the top of the women’s or men’s rankings. The tennis world has seen the power of representation through Serena and Venus Williams in the past, and more recently, and regionally, Tunisian star Ons Jabeur.

Saudi Arabia may be near the start of its tennis journey but with the ambition, vision, resources, and support in place, realizing that dream should be a matter of when instead of if.

“That is the aim at the end eventually. We are working on it. It’s not an easy task to get to the top but the will is there and we will get there one day,” Mutabagani said. “Our Davis Cup team just got promoted to World Group 2 and I think this is a great achievement in such a little time, so we are aiming high – and the sky is the limit.”