Ruud speaks out on Saudi Arabia and points out the hypocrisy of the tennis world

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Powerful knight is Sir Money. The emergence of Saudi Arabia in the tennis ecosystem has arisen rapidly, a landing that continues to threaten to shake the foundations of the ATP and currently finds some coexistence in an atmosphere of "tense calm". The staging of the Six Kings Slam 2024 coinciding with several ATP 250 tournaments is nothing but a new step of the Saudi regime towards achieving the long-awaited Masters 1000: it seems that this will happen later rather than sooner, and not many players have opposed this idea. Only one, however, has highlighted a certain hypocrisy in how everything related to the Saudi presence in sports is treated... and that is Casper Ruud.

Because the Norwegian is clear about his values and has chosen, so far, to decline any offers from the Arab country... but he is also aware, of course, that the mandatory nature of many other events on the calendar in various geographical locations could lead to other equally or even more significant political conflicts. This existing hypocrisy in the world of tennis was explained marvelously in a conversation with SpilXperten: so far, he has not wanted to go there, but everything indicates that in the future, if the long-awaited Masters 1000 emerges, he will have to comply.

"I didn't receive any offer from the Six Kings Slam, but I have had offers in the past and decided not to go there. It is a country that generates controversy in many aspects, but there are also other countries like that where we travel and have to play. We could debate about China and whether human rights are respected, but we go there to play every season. There was much talk about Shuai Peng and what happened to her; I mention it because if we want to point out Saudi Arabia as a problematic country, we should also mention other countries that we don't talk about," Casper stated emphatically.

A BETTER FUTURE... THANKS TO TENNIS?

Thus, Casper took the opportunity to promote a vision that other athletes have already echoed: the presence of sports events can become a very important platform for the evolution of these countries. "It is clear that they have a lot of money, and what I'm about to say will probably be considered sportswashing, but I have the feeling that Salman, their new leader, wants to change things through sports, maybe make the country more westernized. Athletes traveling there can bring about change, right? I know I will seem very naive saying this, that it's simply sportswashing to cover up what truly happens. However, there will never be change if it doesn't start at some point. This is something other places in the Middle East have done, like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or to some extent Doha, Qatar. So far, I have chosen not to go there, but it seems inevitable that they will play an important role in the future of tennis with an extra tournament. We'll see what happens in the future," commented the Norwegian, who is facing his quarterfinal match in Stockholm today against Tallon Griekspoor.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Ruud se moja sobre Arabia Saudí y señala la hipocresía del mundo del tenis