Saudi redefining power in women's tennis

The sell-out crowd was bathed in purple light and the screens ringing the stadium flashed a countdown to a club beat.

The latest conquest in Saudi Arabia's unstoppable advance into the world of sports - football, golf, boxing, motor racing, now tennis - was about to begin. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals had come to Riyadh.

For one night, the capital of an authoritarian, conservative kingdom where progress on women's rights is still stop-and-go was about to be home to one of the most prestigious events in women's tennis.

"Change the game," an announcer intoned just before the players in the singles final, American Coco Gauff and China's Zheng Qinwen, emerged on court to huge cheers from the crowd, which included many Saudi women.

"Redefine power." In another place, those words might have come off as little more than a girl-power slogan for women's sports. But in Saudi Arabia on Nov 9, it was the host country redefining who held power in women's tennis and beyond.

For years now, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto ruler, has used oil riches to remake his staid kingdom into a global player with glitz to match, pairing tectonic social changes with intensifying repression.

Sports are a major part of the crown prince's transformational push. Saudi Arabia muscled into professional golf by pouring US$2 billion (S$2.68 billion) into an upstart competitor to the PGA Tour, which disdained LIV Golf before eventually deciding to partner with it.