Coco Gauff’s $4.8M Triumph Sparks Controversy as Saudi Faces Backlash Despite Efforts to Impress Human Rights Advocates

Coco Gauff ended the 2024 season on a high note by winning one of the biggest trophies of her career so far. She defeated China’s Qinwen Zheng in a three-set thriller at the final match of the 2024 WTA Finals. Although Gauff’s season ended with that impressive win, there is still no end to the controversy of Saudi Arabia being the host of this iconic tournament. A few months ago, WTA signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia which mentioned them as the host of the event for three years. However, as soon as this announcement was made, it sparked a series of protests. The tournament is over, but it’s still facing a major backlash for its strategy for hosting the WTA Finals.

Prominent figures in the tennis world including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have time and again voiced their opposition to the decision of picking Saudi Arabia as the host for this tournament. Reason? According to various reports Saudi Arabia has faced international criticism for its human rights practices, lack of gender equality, and even for the death penalty. So, both Evert and Navratilova felt holding the WTA Finals in Riyadh sends a wrong message and undermines the values of equality and human rights that tennis stands for. They claimed taking the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia would represent taking a significant step backward.

In January this year, even Coco Gauff was heard saying, “I know the situation there isn’t great. Definitely don’t support the situation there.” Later on, thankfully for the players the tournament concluded without much tension inside the stadiums and Coco Gauff grabbed a staggering $4.8 million cheque for winning the title. This was the first time in history that pay in the ATP Finals and WTA Finals were quite identical. However, according to Human Rights Watch – the Saudis had a hidden agenda behind all these. What was it?

In a 95-page report, they claimed how organizing events and sponsorships from Saudi’s PIF allowed Saudi Arabia to “whitewash” themselves. The organization claimed that this was a case of “sportswashing.” According to Stanis Elsborg (head of the Play the Game initiative), “Investing in women’s sports sends a signal to both the domestic Saudi population and the rest of the world that they are doing great things for women.” He further claimed, “I think one of the key reasons behind their sports strategy is that they really don’t want people to talk about their violations of women’s rights or LGBTQ+ people. They want us to talk about all the good things they do for world sports and that they also do for women’s sports.“

Minky Worden, the HRW’s global initiatives director stated that in many aspects of life, a woman in Saudi Arabia cannot make decisions without the consent of a male relative. She also noted that the best evidence that women in the country are still heavily dependent on men was the dismal turnout at the stands. Did Coco Gauff have any second thoughts before taking her flight to Saudi Arabia, though? Well, she also revealed that she had a grim conversation with her father over her trip to Saudi Arabia.

She said, “I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations. Obviously, you know who I am and the things I speak about…First, for the LGBTQ+ community, for me, it’s always a community I’m going to fight for. I have family, friends (who are) part of this community. I hear your concerns.” However, at the same time she also felt, “I really do feel like, in order to ignite change, you have to start little by little.” All she wanted was to inspire millions of women in that part of the world to take up the racquet sport and be their own hero! Perhaps, she managed quite a bit of it too by winning the title. What did she say though after winning the WTA Finals?

“That’s a lot of money” – Coco Gauff’s reaction to hitting the jackpot in Riyadh

Coco Gauff‘s staggering $4.8 million prize money has now pushed her overall career earnings to $21,581,989! She has now become the fourth tennis player male or female, born after the year 2000 to reach $20 million in prize money. The other three are 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, 23-year-old Iga Swiatek, and 23-year-old Jannik Sinner!

What did Coco Gauff say after winning this big amount? “I didn’t know, like I knew it was some money, but I didn’t know that much…That’s a lot of money.” This was the first WTA Finals title triumph for the 20-year-old American. She has had a lot of ups and downs this season. Shortly after finishing the match against Zheng, she looked a bit emotional. Later on during the interview, she revealed, “At the end of the match, when I, like, fell on the floor, I didn’t think I was going to do that. I kind of, like, made a promise to myself that I will only save that for Grand Slams. But honestly, to the way the match went, I was like, ‘I’m just tired. I just want to lay on the ground.’“

Later on, she even cracked a hilarious joke on social media about how the result has silenced some of her critics. The world number 3, managed to end the season with three titles! While addressing her critics in one of her tweets, she wrote, “lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations.” How would rate Coco Gauff’s 2024 season out of 10?