Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova urge women’s tennis to stay out of Saudi Arabia
By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova are calling on the women’s tennis tour to stay out of Saudi Arabia. The two former on-court rivals wrote in an op-ed piece printed in The Washington Post on Thursday that holding the WTA Finals there would represent regression instead of progress and an example of “sportswashing.” Some of the biggest names in tennis have been weighing in on whether or not 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.
