Saudi Arabia’s PIF and the ATP tour sign 5-year sponsorship deal in ‘major moment for tennis’
- New deal includes courtside branding at season-ending ATP Finals and other major tournaments
- ATP CEO Massimo Calvelli calls the new agreement a ‘commitment to propel the future of the sport’
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 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.
This new arrangement 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.
Massimo Calvelli, the ATP chief executive, called the new agreement “a major moment for tennis,” and the tour’s announcement touted ways in which it hopes the sport would continue to grow in Saudi Arabia.
“Our strategic partnership with PIF marks a major moment for tennis,” Calvelli said. “It’s a shared commitment to propel the future of the sport. With PIF’s dedication to the next generation – fostering innovation and creating opportunities for all – the stage is set for a transformative new period of progress.”
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.