Saudi Arabia is going to sponsor the WTA women's tennis rankings under a new partnership

NEW YORK (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s move into tennis will now include a multiyear deal to sponsor the WTA women’s rankings.

The WTA released word of its partnership agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) on Monday, a move that follows last month’s news that the kingdom will host the tour’s season-ending championships in Riyadh starting this year and February’s announcement that it will sponsor the ATP men’s rankings.

Both tours’ rankings deals are for five years.

The PIF is the first naming-rights partner for the WTA rankings and the new arrangement also includes plans to promote tennis at lower levels of the sport.

Tennis has been consumed lately by the debate over whether the sport should follow golf and others in making deals with Saudi Arabia, where rights groups say women continue to face discrimination in most aspects of family life and homosexuality is a major taboo, as it is in much of the rest of the Middle East.