By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, February 29, 2024

Stars shared various views on the brand new partnership between the ATP and Public Investment Fund..  The Saudi-sponsored Public Investment Fund and ATP introduced a multi-year partnership pact yesterday. 

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A main a part of partnership sees the PIF changing into the official naming associate of the ATP Rankings, celebrating gamers’ jprogress throughout the season. The identify change is obvious on the brand new PIF ATP Rankings web page.

The Year-End world No. 1, offered by PIF, will likely be topped on the Nitto ATP Finals which is able to happen in Turin, Italy till 2025.

Defending Dubai champion Daniil Medvedev is optimistic the brand new partnership will infuse new cash into tennis which will help develop the sport.

"I think this is good for tennis," Medvedev instructed the media in Dubai. "It has nothing to do with Saudi, to be honest, because we love our sport.

"The extra money we will entice from completely different corporations or stuff like this, the extra consideration, PR, we will convey. As you stated, it may be larger than simply sponsorship.

"I think if we can make tennis bigger as a sport, more interesting for people, have more coverage, just in general more people will know tennis, who tennis players are. Sometimes maybe you want to be less famous (smiling). But yeah, I think it's going to be good."

During the summer time of 2022, the PGA Tour introduced its plan to merge with Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf. It's the newest sports enterprise the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has tapped in strikes critics name "sport washing"—an try to obscure Saudi Arabia's human rights violations and connection to the 9/11 terrorist assaults with excessive profile sporting investments.

Human Dignity Trust, a corporation that "uses the law to defend the rights of LGBT people globally," has condemned Saudi Arabia for "criminalizing same-sex sexual activity between men and between women."

"Due to the opacity of Saudi Arabia law enforcement, it is not possible to provide accurate estimates of the number of arrests, prosecutions, and executions [of gay people]," Human Dignity Trust stated in a press release. "There have been consistent reports of discrimination and violence being committed against LGBT people in recent years, including murder, assault, harassment, and the denial of basic rights and services."

Asked his view of the brand new pact, former world No. 1 Andy Murray says he is unsure precisely how the PIF funding will form the game, however advocates extra money being utilized towards grass-roots progress of tennis to get youngsters into the game.

“I don’t know exactly what it means by sponsoring the events," Murray told the media in Dubai. "I don’t know what that will look like.

“One of my concerns is obviously actually more about the investment in lower levels of the game and the grassroots of the sport. I think that’s extremely important.”

In a press launch saying the partnership, the ATP and PIF touted their shared intention to "collaborate to elevate the long-term future of tennis. PIF will actively contribute to ATP’s OneVision Strategic Plan which focuses on driving unity, enhancing fan experiences and leveraging scalable growth opportunities across the sport."

"Our strategic partnership with PIF marks a major moment for tennis," Massimo Calvelli, ATP CEO, stated "It's a shared commitment to propel the future of the sport.

"With PIF’s dedication to the following technology – fostering innovation and creating alternatives for all – the stage is about for a transformative new interval of progress.”

Photo credit score: Andy Cheung/Getty

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