Roger Federer is one of the most marketable athletes in the sport of tennis, continuing to enjoy a massive fan following even after his retirement. While the sport has moved on to an extent, Federer’s charisma and largely enigmatic personality make him talked about, perhaps even more than a majority of the active players on the ATP Tour.
The Swiss maestro’s impact clearly is beyond his 20 Grand Slams and over 100 ATP title wins. He has now found himself being discussed in favorable light after recent reports of the ATP Tour mulling a significant investment from the Saudi Arabian government.
ATP Saudi Arabian partnership: Many years in the making?
The answer to this question probably has its origins in the year 2018. This was a time when Roger Federer was ranked 3rd in the world, having won a then-record 20th Grand Slam title at the age of 36. He was still competitive with his top 2 rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Seeing Federer’s marketability and form, the Saudi Arabian government reportedly invited him personally to play in a winner-takes-all, exhibition match in Jeddah in December 2018, when it is usually the off-season for all players after a grueling year of action.
As per multiple reports, Roger Federer stood to earn anywhere between $1-2 million for just 1 day of appearance in the country. it could have also been a dream come true for his supporters in Saudi Arabia to watch him in action in person. Despite the offer sounding positive on the surface, the tennis legend revealed that he turned it down and the decision was rather a ‘no-brainer’.
“They contacted me too. I prefer not to play. I’m happy practising. I’m happy doing other things, and I didn’t want to play there at that time. So, for me, it was a very quick decision.”
Here’s where Federer’s general awareness and beliefs come into play. In many fields, most successful people are known to be so focused on their work that sometimes they may fail to know and understand on-going happenings around the world, giving them a narrow perspective perhaps. But Federer is not a typical success as one major factor played a role in his decision.
It was around that time itself that the story of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi getting assassinated in Istanbul, was growing stronger across the globe. The government was accused of the crime since Khashoggi was the most prominent personality to publicly question many of their policies, mainly centered around human rights in terms of slavery, voicing opinions, women’s issues and so on. It raised the ire of the media, public and organizations such as Amnesty International.
It is the same government whose sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) which is reportedly worth $650 billion as per SportsPro Media, is an investor today in many global sports and their properties such as Golf, Boxing, World Wrestling Entertainment, Cricket, Formula 1 and Football. Many consider this strategy as the Saudi government’s way of diverting media and public attention from the human rights controversies they are involved in, besides promoting tourism in the Middle Eastern country.
Should Nick Kyrgios and Carlos Alcaraz go the Roger Federer way?
Apart from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were also invited for that 2018 match and both of them initially agreed to play each other in Jeddah. However, due to the controversy and Nadal’s ankle injury at the time, the match was cancelled.
The younger generation, however, seems to have no problems in playing in Saudi Arabia as the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Cam Norrie and Nick Kyrgios participated across 2 editions of the Diriyah Tennis Cup, in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The event took place in the city of Diriyah on both the occasions.
Interestingly, Nick Kyrgios created another controversy recently after supporting the potential Saudi Arabian investment in the game. He tweeted that it would make players like him ‘will finally get paid what they deserved to be paid’, taking a shot at the ATP management.
Kyrgios isn’t alone in having such sentiments as the new World No.1, Carlos Alcaraz also stated that he has ‘no doubt’ that he would visit Saudi Arabia more frequently to play in matches and events in the future. Needless to say, Alcaraz has polarised opinions in social media, which has slightly taken the sheen out of his first grass court title win at Queen’s.
One side of the coin has many talking about other prominent sportspersons having either already played in Saudi Arabia in the past or some connect with them. The other side of the coin though, will have Roger Federer standing alone so far in terms of not even being remotely associated with the country. If the ATP accepts the deal, some may not bother much about Federer’s stance. But his ardent supporters and those who followed the 2018 assassination story could well take him to another pedestal as tennis might see a radical change from the times he played.
