Ambassador responds to call by Evert and Navratilova to keep women’s tennis out of Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States says Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova relied on “outdated stereotypes and western-centric views of our culture” in urging the women’s tennis tour to avoid holding its season-ending tournament in the kingdom. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud responded Tuesday to an op-ed piece by Evert and Navratilova printed in The Washington Post last week. 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.