There have been many celebrity visitors to the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex here in Doha throughout the week like former Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez, chess Grandmaster Zhu Chen and Swiss cycling veteran Fabian Cancellara.
Cancellara wrapped up his second straight event in the Gulf region, competing in the Tour of Qatar after taking part in the inaugural Dubai Tour, and he stopped by the tennis to watch his first ever women’s match live.
He said he was curious to see the difference between men’s and women’s tennis and is most impressed by the diversity in the women’s field.
“The men, the top-10 players are almost plus or minus the same. With the women, there’s always a big change. There’s many young ones, and older ones. From Williams to Sharapova, those are probably the strongest in names. But then you see Li Na, or Ivanovic or Kvitova, now we have Radwanska, there is almost a player from each country and that shows how large women’s tennis is and that’s great,” said Cancellara.
An avid fan of his fellow Swiss Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka and retired champion Martina Hingis, Cancellara says he’s also keeping tabs on young up-and-comer Belinda Bencic.
He was quizzed on the state of Federer’s game and was quick to come to the 32-year-old’s defence.
“He’s still there,” Cancellara responded. “The thing is with Roger, maybe he has too many things around him. Because that’s the biggest challenge when you get higher as an athlete, everything around you takes maybe a little bit of energy away.
"When you’re so big like him, you have so many things around you then sometimes maybe you have a minute or two where you lose maybe the recovery, or training or other things. But he’s not dead. He’s still up there.”
Kerber has a visitor
Doha finalist Angelique Kerber was happy to know that Raul was in the stands during her semi-final win over Jelena Jankovic. Raul, who lives in Qatar where he plays for Al Sadd, is a regular here at the tennis.
When told Raul attended her match, a giddy Kerber said: “Oh, really? No, I didn’t know, actually. So now he knows me. That’s cool!”
