The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) announced today, Thursday, that the 2023 edition of the WTA Finals will take place in Cancun, Mexico, from October 29 to November 5 under a one-year agreement, putting an end to speculation about the possibility of holding this year's event in Saudi Arabia. The season-ending tournament, featuring the top eight players in singles and doubles teams, returns to Mexico just one year after a pause, following the 2021 edition held in Guadalajara.
WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon stated, "This edition of the WTA Finals will provide a great experience for both the players and fans, offering a fitting conclusion to the WTA Tour for 2023 and allowing us to continue building a strong future for women's tennis."
After the ATP announced last month that the season-ending event for the Next Gen ATP Finals would take place in Jeddah from 2023 to 2027, social media erupted with speculation that the WTA Finals might also be held in Saudi Arabia. The WTA declined to deny recent rumors suggesting that the finals could take place in Saudi Arabia in the future, indicating that no decision had been made yet.
Tunisian player Ons Jabeur, ranked fifth in the world and the first Arab player to reach a Grand Slam final, supported the idea as a means to attract more Arab women to the world of tennis. Former player and current ESPN analyst Chris Evert stated last month that she preferred the WTA not to move the event to the Gulf state.
The 2021 tournament was held in Guadalajara instead of Shenzhen, China, after the WTA canceled the Asian tournament series from its calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was scheduled to return to Shenzhen from 2022 to 2030, but the WTA later suspended tournaments in China amid concerns regarding former world No. 1 doubles player Peng Shuai, leading to the event being relocated to Fort Worth, Texas. The WTA resumed its tournaments in China earlier this year.
