Saudi Arabian government wanted the WTA Finals but maybe not the Saudi people

The Saudi Arabian government, specifically in terms of the kingdom's Public Investment Fund, wants to change sports. They will pay top dollar to attract high-end sporting events to country. They have to do this because the country does not have a natural draw for most sports. The Saudis want to change their image away from one seen as a nation that violates human rights and sports is a good way to do that.

But buying sports events gets weird. Nobody comes off as innocent. The athletes who take part in the tournaments look like they are happy to take the money grab and their integrity is questioned by some. The sport's officials certainly seem callous and uncaring of the human rights violations that have taken place. The Saudi government doesn't care much about that, however.

They care about image. Many see the country as having harsh policies against women, so what better way to fix that than to have the WTA hold their year-end event in Riyadh? That would prove that the Saudis are not as bad as some thing.

Iga Swiatek does not seem to mind the small crowds at the WTA Finals

The problem is that holding such events is only about image. The population must want something different. How else to explain that after the first day of the Finals saw good crowds in the 3,000-seat arena in which the tennis is played that the next day saw crowds of around 400 people?

Would more people turn out of the ATP Finals were held at the same venue? If so, isn't that an endictment on the culuture that has been set by the Saudis? Maybe the crowds will grow later in the tournament, but every player in the event is fantastic at what they do and all are worth watching.

Second-ranked Iga Swiatek was asked about the small crowd watching her match against Barbora Krejcikova and the Pole said she didn't mind because the lack of crowd noise helped her focus. Swiatek told the media, "I think (the match) was also comfortable for me because it was my first match after a break, so the fact it wasn’t super crazy also made it easier kind of for me. I think there’s gonna be more crowd (later in the week). I guess today is the first working day because they have their weekend on Friday and Saturday, so we’ll see how it’s going to go in the next days."

Let's hope more people do turn out to watch the matches because having few people in the stands only re-enforces the view that playing in Saudi Arabia is all about the money and not for the betterment of the sport.

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