Tennis legend John McEnroe fears Saudi Masters move could lead to year-round season

John McEnroe accepts the inevitability of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence on tennis but the American great fears the country’s ambition to host a 10th Masters tournament could add to player and fan fatigue.

The outspoken New Yorker has been one of the most vocal critics of Saudi Arabia’s big-money push into tennis, describing the potential engagement of the women’s tour with the country as “laughable”.

According to a source with knowledge of the plans, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is keen to own a tennis event featuring the top players, with multiple reports saying they are eyeing a slot before the Australian Open in January. The tennis season traditionally kicks off after a short break in the last couple of days of December with the warm-ups to the Melbourne Park Grand Slam, meaning players have limited time to rest, recover and work on their game.

“I read recently they’re talking about an event before the Australian Open. That’s going to open up a whole can of worms. So we’ll see what develops,” the 65-year-old McEnroe told Reuters in a video call from New York. “I’m not a big believer in having the tennis circuit go year round. We need an off season. Not only for players to recuperate but for fans to recuperate. And this is something we’ve always had difficulty with. “I think tennis has shot itself in the foot for too long.”

SRJ Sports Investments, which was formed by the PIF to accelerate the growth of sports in the Gulf country, declined to comment. Reuters has contacted the PIF for comment. The PIF, which has already invested heavily in sports like golf, soccer, Formula One and boxing, has steadily made inroads into men’s tennis and replaced Pepperstone as the official naming partner of its world rankings last month.

As part of the multi-year agreement, the sovereign wealth fund will also partner ATP tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing and the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin as well as the Next Gen Finals in Jeddah.

“After what I saw happened in golf, I can’t say I’m totally surprised. I think everyone involved in tennis suspected this,” McEnroe said of the growing Saudi footprint. “I can’t honestly say at this point that I’m a big supporter of this. I don’t agree with it.”

HUGE FUNDS

Former world number one and seven-times Grand Slam winner McEnroe this week signed as a global ambassador for CFD broker Pepperstone, previously a platinum sponsor of the ATP Tour.

McEnroe said Saudi Arabia would undoubtedly bring huge funds to a new Masters event but questioned if tennis would ultimately benefit from it.

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“It depends on what people define that as. Is it going to be more money? Yes. Does that mean it’s better? Not necessarily. It depends where that money is spent, where it goes,” McEnroe said. “But even if it was, I don’t think that means it’s good automatically for the game because Saudi Arabia has a Masters 1000 event. That doesn’t mean anything to me as far as whether it’s a net positive or negative. “It harks back to people that have commitment to the game, a love for the game and have a real idea of what the future is.”

That will be something the women’s tour is considering as it mulls a move for the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia despite push back from McEnroe’s contemporaries Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.

The two greats have argued that the WTA’s values sit in stark contrast to Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of using the PIF to “sportswash” its human rights record.

Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws. Another women’s tennis great, Billie Jean King, believes the WTA will inevitably go to the Middle Eastern nation but thinks the tour can use the relationship to push for social change.

McEnroe, though, remains sceptical. “Someone I’ve looked up to and think is the most influential human being on the face of the earth over the past 50 years for women’s sports has endorsed this idea from what I’ve read,” McEnroe said.

“I love Billie Jean. I’d like to speak to her about why she thinks that’s a good thing, because to me it’s not. But I’m an outsider looking in … It’s like, ‘why in the hell would the WTA play their event there, where there’s human rights issues still going on today.

“I’ve never been there. Apparently things have improved to some level, so it’s not like I’m some sort of expert. When I read about it, I completely disagreed with it.”