Saudi Arabia Favorites to Host 2023 Season-Ending Tournament and Bring the Best Young Tennis Talent to the Middle East

Tennis and Saudi Arabia; these words aren’t what you’d expect to feature in the same sentence. However, the fact is that Saudi Arabia is ready to welcome tennis with open arms, and it’s looking likelier with each passing day that tennis will accept the Middle Eastern Kingdom’s embrace. The NextGen Finals is on the verge of moving from Italy’s capital Milan to Saudi Arabia’s center of commerce, Jeddah. It’s a tournament created in 2017 for showcasing the best young talent tennis has to offer.

For Saudi Arabia, hosting the NextGen Finals would mark its first steps into the world of tennis. At the same time, the world of tennis is also set to benefit from the vast financial reserves the country boasts.

So far, competitive tennis has been a distant dream for Saudi Arabia

No one can deny Saudi Arabia’s rich history. However, when it comes to tennis, the country has so far drawn an embarrassing blank. In fact, it is yet to host its first competitive professional tennis match.

In December 2022, Saudi Arabia hosted the Diriyah Tennis Cup, which saw the participation of several iconic men’s players. However, it wasn’t a competitive tournament. It was an exhibition tournament.

The Diriyah Tennis Cup featured the likes of Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Despite the tournament’s exhibition status, the prize money on offer was a whopping $1 million for the winner. This served as motivation enough for Kyrgios, who chose the exhibition tournament over the Australia team for the Davis Cup. Ultimately, Taylor Fritz took home the money after a hard-fought contest against Daniil Medvedev.

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When it comes to women’s tennis, Saudi Arabia still has a long way to go

Right now, Saudi Arabia’s conservative stance towards the participation of women in sports is a stumbling block for the future prospects of women’s tennis in the country. If the NextGen Masters does move to Jeddah, the first couple of years are almost surely going to be exclusively men’s tournaments.

Despite the likelihood of the 2023 NextGen Masters being an all-men’s affair, it’s not all doom and gloom. This year, the tournament is set to benefit from Saudi Arabia’s financial prosperity. The winner this time will walk away with a whopping $2.5 million.

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