Azarenka calls for fitting venue for women’s tennis finals
Victoria Azarenka said Monday that she hopes the WTA Finals will find a "deserving" home, after a couple of years of instability after the women's tennis organization suspended all Chinese tournaments.
The former world number one and two-time Australian Open champion also urged an announcement on this year's venue soon, to allow for better marketing of the tour's flagship event.
The season-ending championships feature the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams. They were initially meant to be staged in China's southern city of Shenzhen ever year for 10 years, starting with the 2019 edition.
The deal with Shenzhen was record-breaking and the inaugural 2019 showpiece awarded singles champion Ashleigh Barty $4.42 million — which was the highest-ever prize money awarded to a player at any tennis event across both the men's and women's tours.
But the pandemic and the fallout from the disappearance of Chinese player Peng Shuai — which led to the WTA suspending operations in China — have meant that the tour Finals have not returned to Shenzhen since 2019.
Peng, the former doubles world number one, has not been seen outside China since first making, and then withdrawing, accusations of sexual assault against a high-ranking official.
The WTA championships were canceled in 2020 and then found a temporary home in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2021, and Fort Worth, Texas in 2022.
The WTA Finals in Fort Worth witnessed sparse crowds and were only announced late September — less than two months before the event.
"We need something that is deserving of the Finals," Azarenka, an active member on the WTA Player Council, told reporters at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday.
"Last couple of years with such a short announcement, absolutely no time for marketing — in my opinion — it's been undervalued."
Azarenka, a former world number one and two-time Australian Open champion, said the Guadalajara edition featured "unreal" crowds and believes future stagings of the prestigious tournament should receive the same welcome.