There tend to be a lot of footballers who attend the Qatar Open, be it players from teams who spend their winter break training in Doha, or others who are guests of Nasser Al Khelaifi, the chairman and CEO of Paris Saint-Germain, beIN Sports, Qatar Sports Investments and the president of the Qatar Tennis Federation.
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David Beckham and Raul Gonzalez are previous visitors to the tournament while so far this week ex-Chelsea forward Nicolas Anelka has been a regular figure near the Royal Box. Lothar Matthaus was also here on Wednesday, and the Bayern Munich players as well as Al Sadd’s Xavi Hernandez are expected to make appearances in the next couple of days.
However unlike many other tournaments where you could bump into such figures while walking around the grounds and could hear their views as tennis fans, meeting the stars in Doha is tough.
The way the Qatar Open venue is designed makes it impossible to interact with the spectators on the Royal Box side of the stadium. There is our side and their side and both do not mix.
In the press room, a fellow reporter jokingly asked whether you needed to be Spanish in order to play in the Qatar Open. It was an interesting observation as there were eight Spaniards in the singles main draw and two more in doubles, taking the total to 10.
Rafael Nadal was asked why he, and many of his countrymen, enjoy coming to the Qatar Open in particular to kick off their season rather than go to Chennai, Brisbane or Perth.
“It’s in the middle of the journey to Australia and it’s also not so far away from Spain so it allows you to come late and spend Christmas time with family, which in our country is important, we are familial people and we like to spend these times with them,” said Nadal.
“It’s a pleasant tournament, and for me personally I have a lot of friends here which I’ve made over the years and I feel very comfortable here.”
