DDF Tennis sets the benchmark on how sport events should be organised

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  • The ATP Tour is in town for a 25th consecutive season and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships organisers are rightfully celebrating.

    DDF have brought world-class tennis to the Emirates for a quarter of a century and in the process, have forever changed the sporting landscape in the UAE.

    In a city that hosts countless sport and entertainment events throughout the year, the Dubai tennis tournament is a class apart.

    It’s one of the best-attended live sports events taking place in the emirate, usually selling out within an hour from getting released.

    Spending a night session at centre court at the Aviation Club has become part of this city’s culture and with the Irish Village and other restaurants and bars surrounding the stadium, the atmosphere is truly unrivalled.

    Many of the players who took part in the early years of the DDF tournament recall how surprising it was to see an event pop up in the Middle East back in 1993.

    There was, understandably, lots of scepticism, but those curious enough put it on their calendar and kept coming back year after year, telling their rivals and friends that they should join them.

    It was precisely what the rulers of the UAE and the DDF set out to achieve from the start – creating a top-notch tennis tournament to place the country on the global sports map and become a popular spot on the tour for years to come.

    The tournament has come a long way since its inception and the evolution has been remarkable.

    From barely having one top-20 player in the first edition, they constantly bring five or six of the world’s top-10 now. From a scaffolding purpose-built stadium they started with, they now have the beautiful 5,000-seater centre court Monday.

    A few years ago, DDF built an on-site five-star hotel, the Jumeirah Creekside, to host the players and invited media which made the tournament even more comfortable and convenient.

    The best part of the venue is that in the über-modern, fast-developing, extreme-loving Dubai, the Aviation Club has maintained its cosy feel and never strayed away from its origins.

    The whole place is as compact as a tennis club can get, the cobblestone surrounding centre court, the pond out by the Irish Village, and even the swan and ducks roaming the grounds… it all pays homage to a simpler, throwback version of Dubai.

    While the tournament never resulted in a local talent emerging on the professional scene, it has undoubtedly spread the tennis culture, at least as a recreational activity, or simply from a viewing perspective.

    There are the regular fans we see in the stands every single year, and ones who travel from across the globe to visit the city and get to watch the likes of Roger Federer up close in a stadium that literally has no bad seats.

    Twenty five years is a massive accomplishment, especially when we see many tournaments worldwide struggling to stay afloat, and switching cities due to financial constraints.

    The Dubai tournament also played an important role within the region as a whole, because it gave Arabs from neighboring countries the opportunity to hop on a short flight and witness live professional tennis for the first time.

    It meant a lot for the Arab players too. People like Selima Sfar of Tunisia and Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco felt special support when they competed in Dubai and enjoyed some of their best results here.

    The real hope now is for this tournament to inspire a young Emirati to take up the sport, one day pursue it professionally. and eventually breakthrough on the tour. That will be the ultimate achievement.

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