The WTA signed a multi-year partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund on May 20, creating the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program and becoming the first professional tennis tour to offer paid maternity leave. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal arrives three months after PIF signed a similar partnership with the men's ATP Tour in February.
The maternity fund guarantees players their ranking for three years following childbirth and provides financial support during leave. Players who take maternity leave will receive prize money equivalent to their average tournament earnings over the prior 12 months, capped at a number the WTA has not yet published. The program was championed by the WTA Players' Council, whose members include Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula. No other individual sport operates a comparable fund. Team sports with collective bargaining—WNBA, NWSL—have negotiated maternity clauses, but tennis players compete as independent contractors without union representation.
PIF now holds partnership positions across both major tennis tours. The ATP deal, announced in February, made PIF a premium partner and brought Saudi branding to ATP Masters 1000 events. That arrangement included no maternity provision because the men's tour has not historically addressed parental leave. The WTA deal extends PIF's sports portfolio beyond football (Newcastle United, four Saudi Pro League clubs), golf (LIV Golf), and Formula One (sponsorship discussions reportedly ongoing). The fund manages roughly $925 billion in assets and has spent an estimated $10 billion on sports investments since 2021, according to Bloomberg tracking.
The maternity fund solves a structural problem. Tennis players earn by competing; missing tournaments means zero income and ranking decay. Tatjana Maria returned to the tour in 2023 after her second child and reached the Wimbledon semifinals at age 34, but spent months rebuilding her ranking from outside the top 250. Serena Williams faced similar re-entry friction after giving birth in 2017, despite protected ranking rules that preserve seeding but not prize money. The new fund decouples earnings from court time for up to 18 months of paid leave, with ranking protection extending another 18 months.
Sponsor response will clarify whether the PIF association generates the risk some advocacy groups predict. The WTA already stages the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia starting in 2024 under a separate three-year agreement announced last year. That deal, worth a reported $15 million annually, drew criticism from human rights organizations citing the kingdom's record on women's freedoms and LGBTQ rights. Existing WTA sponsors—Hologic, Rolex, Porsche—have not publicly commented on the PIF partnership. Their silence or support will signal whether corporate partners view the maternity fund as reputational cover or genuine infrastructure.
The ATP and WTA deals position PIF as a cross-gender tennis investor, a pattern it has not replicated in football or golf, where spending has targeted men's properties. The maternity fund creates a visible differentiator. If the WTA uses the program to recruit sponsors who want alignment with women's health initiatives, PIF's involvement becomes a wedge for broader partnership categories—insurance, healthcare, family planning—that have historically underspent on women's sports.
Watch whether other individual sports adopt similar structures. LPGA players have raised maternity leave in tour discussions but have no fund equivalent. Track and field operates under the same independent-contractor model as tennis, with no paid leave. If the WTA fund demonstrably retains talent—measured by return rates and post-leave performance—expect parallel proposals in golf and athletics within 18 months.
The first player to use the fund will set the benchmark. The WTA has not published application criteria, payout schedules, or whether the fund covers adoption and surrogacy. Those details, and which sponsor logos appear alongside PIF branding at WTA events this summer, will clarify whether the kingdom bought a seat or built a program.
The takeaway
PIF backs WTA with undisclosed multi-year deal including tennis's first paid maternity fund, extending Saudi sports spend into women's individual sports.
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