The growing interest in tennis from amateurs in the Kingdom caught the interest of the Financial Times, referring to initiatives like the Tennis Federation’s “Tennis For All” in 2022 that trained 2k students across the kingdom, as well as the federation efforts with the Education Ministry to integrate the sport in 400 schools by year-end.

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The salmon-colored paper shed light on the Kingdom’s bids to hold tennis tournaments, including inaugurating the Diriyah Tennis Cup in 2019, where it gathered global players such as Daniil Medvedev and Stan Wawrinka in its first ever major event. Riyadh also hosted the Six Kings Slam in October 2024, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Holger Rune receiving a minimum of USD 1.5 mn each, while the title winner Jannik Sinner got USD 6 mn, the biggest prize in the sport’s history.

Challenges are still facing the game in the Kingdom, including the scarcity of tennis courts and their high booking costs at some SAR 400 per hour. Entrepreneurs like Faris Al Turki are tapping into the budding tennis market by establishing tennis academies and courts — like Al Turki’s Net Tennis Academy in Diriyah — which are gaining increasing demand.

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