The WTA has secured a title sponsor for the first time in a decade, thanks in part to its decision to boycott China because of the Peng Shuai crisis late last year.

The short-term pain of suspending the most lucrative swing on its tour has in the end resulted in huge long-term gain for the financially beleaguered WTA, in what the organisation is calling “probably the biggest [sponsorship deal] in women’s sports”.

The WTA’s show of solidarity with former doubles world No 1 Peng – who went missing for nearly three weeks last year, after alleging a former Chinese government official sexually assaulted her – saw them discard 10 events in China, including the multi-million pound WTA Finals in Shenzhen. But being on “the right side of history”, as Billie Jean King put it, made them uber-attractive to a major prospective sponsor.

Hologic, a US-based company which focuses on medical technology primarily aimed at improving women’s health and wellbeing, has signed on for the WTA’s largest ever sponsorship deal, and have done so partly on account of the values which the WTA showed in its reaction to China. 

In an interview with the New York Times, Hologic representative Lisa Hellman called the WTA’s decision to pull out of China “the catalyst” for the deal, while the company’s CEO Steve MacMillan said in a statement, “we are proud to stand with the WTA in its commitment to the highest integrity and values”.

The WTA’s CEO Steve Simon was universally applauded when he slashed all events in China indefinitely, despite them forming a huge chunk of revenue, and has been touted as a rare example of a sports leader taking a moral stand in lieu of financial gain. 

Despite Peng making numerous highly-controlled interviews and appearances since, including where she retracted her original claims, the WTA has still not been in direct contact with her and remains unconvinced that she is acting under her own free will.

But the WTA cut a lonely figure until now. The men’s ATP tour failed to follow their lead and the International Olympic Committee made a charade of the whole affair, with President Thomas Bach interviewing Peng in a perverse attempt to allay fears, before she was paraded at the Beijing Winter Olympics last month.

For the WTA, who has stood so solidly on this issue, this new deal with Hologic acts as vindication for its decision to break away from sport’s tendency to turn a blind eye to human rights concerns in countries offering big business. 

That, as well as the emergence of global women’s tennis stars like Naomi Osaka, Ash Barty and Emma Raducanu, will have had a major bearing on the new opportunity that has come the WTA’s way, and will hopefully go a long way to improving its financial troubles.