A number of top players on the WTA tour have expressed their surprise at the abrupt decision by its chief executive, Portia Archer, to resign from her role this week after two years at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard literally two minutes ago, so I really don\u2019t know why now and everything,\u201d said Iga Swiatek<\/a> after winning her first-round match 6-1, 6-2 against Daria Snigur at the Madrid Open. \u201cWe always had a good relationship. I felt like she listened to what we had to say and was really open-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n An experienced sports executive who previously worked in the NBA\u2019s G League, Archer was appointed CEO of the WTA in June 2024.<\/p>\n She took her role months before the WTA Finals, the tour\u2019s flagship year-end event, began its first of three years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Portia Archer took her role months before the WTA Finals in 2024. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The three-year deal expires this year and will probably move on from Saudi Arabia after the kingdom chose not to renew it, with the search on for a new location in 2027.<\/p>\n Archer\u2019s resignation was communicated to WTA staff by its chair, Valerie Camillo, in an email on Wednesday night in Madrid.<\/p>\n \u201cI am writing to share that Portia has informed us of her decision to step down from her role as CEO, effective 20 April, ahead of her contract renewal,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe are working through a transition plan for the leadership of the WTA Tour and will share an update on this by mid-May.\u201d<\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka, the No 1 player for the majority of Archer\u2019s tenure, followed Swiatek by expressing her surprise at the news and her admiration for the outgoing CEO after her 7-5, 6-3 win over Peyton Stearns. \u201cI just [heard] that before going to the match,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI feel like she did a great job. I just want the best for the WTA tour and hopefully we are for a better outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Belinda Bencic, the 2020 Olympic gold medallist ranked No 12, appeared less enthusiastic, saying she had minimal contact with Archer during her tenure.<\/p>\n \u201cI got the email like you, probably, yesterday, so I didn\u2019t know about it and I honestly didn\u2019t know her so well,\u201d Bencic said, smiling. \u201cI didn\u2019t talk to her so much and she didn\u2019t talk to me so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps Archer\u2019s most high-profile decision was the delicate case involving Elena Rybakina and her coach Stefano Vukov, who was suspended from all tour events by the WTA last year due to alleged verbal abuse. Archer supervised the investigation and Vukov\u2019s initial ban<\/a>. The ban was later overturned, with Vukov rejoining Rybakina\u2019s team onsite from August onwards, including as she won the WTA Finals<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Rybakina had been critical of the WTA throughout the investigation and during the ceremonial photoshoot after her victory at the WTA Finals refused to pose for photographs with Archer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of top players on the WTA tour have expressed their surprise at the abrupt decision by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-546976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}