Ever since the venue of the WTA Finals was shifted to Saudi Arabia, there has been a lot of resistance inside the tennis circuit regarding it. Riyadh was selected as the host of the tournament for the period between 2024 and 2026, with Saudi influence taking over the tennis world. Earlier this year, Saudi’s PIF and WTA signed a multi-year partnership to boost women’s tennis across the globe. However, with the year-end championships, having the likes of Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff playing, finally commencing in Riyadh, controversies refused to die down as shocking numbers emerged on fan attendance at the tournament.

Yesterday saw some thrilling battles unfold at the tournament with Swiatek battling past Barbora Krejcikova and Coco Gauff winning her match against Jessica Pegula. Despite these exciting battles, only a handful of fans turned up for the event. It was reported that the 5000-seater arena had only about 400 fans present to watch the tennis action.

Despite there being rumors that the Saudis not being huge fans of the sport, the tickets were priced as low as 32.5 Riyals which is equivalent to $8.66 to boost the attendance at the tournament. However, with Sunday being a working day in the country, there was barely any momentum inside the stadium with less than 10% of the arena being filled up.

Iga Swiatek, interestingly, had criticized fans for being very vocal during her French Open encounter against Naomi Osaka this year. Expressing her frustration, she said, “I have huge respect for you guys and I know that we are playing basically for you, because it’s entertainment and we’re also earning money because of you, but sometimes under a lot of pressure when you scream stuff during the rally or right before the return it’s really, really hard to be focused.” But while Swiatek might not be in favor of too much noise, she definitely wouldn’t have been looking forward to empty stands.

Talking about Swiatek’s on-court performance though, the win over Krejcikova must have come as a relief for the Pole, who was embroiled in off-court drama before the tournament. After her win, she shared a cryptic note about the events before the WTA Finals.

Iga Swiatek: ‘I have to keep fighting’

Yesterday, Swiatek dug deep to defeat Krejcikova in three sets in her first match after the US Open quarterfinal exit. The Polish star made a huge change to her coaching team after she split with longtime coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski and replaced him with Wim Fissette. However, with the coaching controversy behind her now, the Polish star made a candid revelation after her win yesterday.

She went on to say, “I had a lot of thoughts in my head about what was happening in Poland recently. I just knew that I shouldn’t think about it during the game. Even though I had a long break, I managed to regain my concentration and not think about the things that hurt me. I have to keep fighting and I remember that I’m playing for myself.”

The former World Number 1 will next take on Coco Gauff in what promises to be an exciting battle. Nonetheless, the big question remains – Will the tournament see improvement in attendance as the event progresses?