MELBOURNE — Players on the women’s professional tennis tour are resigned to the fact they will have to play in Saudi Arabia, either later this year or in the future.

It is understood that a deal to take the WTA Finals, the end-of-year tournament held in Mexico last year, to Saudi Arabia for 2024 and beyond is imminent.

The agreement would see eight female singles players and 16 doubles players compelled to play in Saudi Arabia if they finish in the top eight places in the world rankings this season, a group that would currently include the likes of Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

Demi Schuurs and her doubles partner Luisa Stefani currently sit just outside the qualification places, but Schuurs qualified for last year’s event and would reasonably expect to do so again this year.

“If I’m not going, someone else would go in my place,” Schuurs, who revealed she was in a same-sex relationship in 2020, tells i.

“So I feel like there’s not like a like a big choice and I maybe have to follow the whole tour who is maybe going there.

“But I understand it’s also for WTA, ATP, it’s something commercial as well and money is a big thing. So I think there’s a thin line and it has two sides.”

She adds: “I feel like it will come one day and we have to go there. And it’s a tough call because we all know how the policy is and how everything is going there.”

The WTA had tried to take the Finals to Riyadh last year, but did not have time to “get the messaging right”.

As one of the few “out” members of LGBT community on tour and the only one qualified for the WTA Finals, Schuurs was a particular focus for the tour’s lobbying.

Schuurs adds: “I think I was one of the players that they really want to talk to because yes, I had girlfriends in the past.

“I know they were talking to a few players and I think now afterwards also they tried to include us a little bit in all the conversations but I’m not sure we know everything. But it’s a tough call.”

Qualified players are not just compelled to play either. The WTA rules state they must arrive in the city at least three days before the tournament and participate in all mandatory functions, or risk a fine of nearly £100,000.

But there are risk-reward factors for the WTA too. The tour has promised to pay its players equal prize money with the men’s tour by 2033, something that will need to see them garner significant outside investment above their current levels. Last year, prominent WTA Players’ Council member Jessica Pegula alluded to that fact.

“If they [the Saudi regime] could help getting us to equal prize money, even though there are negatives, I think there’s a lot of positives that can come out of it as well,” Pegula said.

“Hopefully something good comes out of it the right way.”

This would be a historic decision, and one that would be seen as a further dilution of the WTA’s dedication to its founding principles after climbing down from its “boycott” of China over the treatment of Peng Shuai. In reality, they did not miss a single tournament there because the Covid guidelines prevented free movement in and out of the country.

“At the end of the day, the WTA was founded by players,” said Coco Gauff, lauding the tour for trying to involve players in the process of tying up a deal with the Saudi Arabian regime.

Two of the early stars of the WTA, founded in 1970 as a radical breakaway professional tour, spoke out this week in a joint opinion piece in the Washington Post.

Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, with 36 grand slam singles titles between them, described the mooted move to Saudi Arabia as “entirely incompatible with the spirit and purpose of women’s tennis and the WTA itself”.

“Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country where the current landscape includes a male guardianship law that essentially makes women the property of men,” they wrote.

“A country which criminalises the LGBTQ community to the point of possible death sentences. A country whose long-term record on human rights and basic freedoms has been a matter of international concern for decades.”

The pair called for a “healthy debate”, informed by experts on the human rights and women’s rights, between the WTA board, players and other stakeholders.

They added: “The WTA must stand for human rights so long as inequality for women exists in the world.”

But the majority have chosen either not to speak at all or claim they simply do not know enough about it.

Ex-world No 8 Alicia Molik, quizzed about it at a legends event in Melbourne, said she would “love to know more about it” because she hadn’t “been filled in on all the detail”.

“Same,” said Daniela Hantuchova, another former top-10 player.

But the “detail” is all out there for them to see.

Major human rights groups have cautioned the tours about buying into the Saudi authorities efforts to portray a “women-friendly” image of the country.

“Away from the glitz and hype of new Saudi sporting ventures, the much darker reality is that the authorities have been jailing peaceful activists (including women’s rights campaigners), carrying out record numbers of executions, and refusing to reopen investigations into the horrendous murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s economic affairs director told i.

“Under Mohammed bin Salman, there’s been a particularly sustained crackdown against women’s rights activists, from right-to-drive campaigners like Loujain al-Hathloul through to those such as Leeds University student Salma al-Shehab, who was jailed merely for tweeting about women’s rights.”

Sabalenka, set to defend her Australian Open title against Zheng Qinwen on Saturday night, has welcomed the move to Saudi after playing an exhibition.

“It was amazing experience actually. I expected something different,” Sabalenka said.

“They treated us really well. It was really amazing atmosphere on the stadium. People are really like sport people there. They really like tennis. The atmosphere was incredible.”

But the more common line has been to court engagement: Caroline Wozniacki said she hoped it would be “a chance to make a change and do something good there”.

Frankental added: “If a Saudi-hosted WTA Finals comes to pass we would urge players like Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka to use their platforms to speak out about human rights in Saudi Arabia, while the Women’s Tennis Association will have a particular responsibility to use its influence to press for human rights reform in the country.”

Whether the WTA and its stars are willing to make the brave decision to stand up in Saudi Arabia and actually use that platform for progress remains to be seen.