Dubai Tennis Championships

Any city which wishes to be up there with the most attractive in the world, needs to be able to call on some sort of a sports scene It is no coincidence that three of the four major Grand Slam tennis events are held in arguably the world?s three most enduring tourist hot spots, with the US Open hosted in New York, the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris and the legendary Wimbledon championships a major part of London?s sporting and cultural calendar

Any city which wishes to be up there with the most attractive in the world, needs to be able to call on some sort of a sports scene. It is no coincidence that three of the four major Grand Slam tennis events are held in arguably the world?s three most enduring tourist hot spots, with the US Open hosted in New York, the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris and the legendary Wimbledon championships a major part of London?s sporting and cultural calendar. A key element of Dubai?s sporting calendar is the Dubai Tennis Championships, played at the Aviation Club Tennis Center in the city and a major part of the warm-up schedule for players planning their assault on the new season in the aftermath of the first Grand Slam event of the year, Melbourne?s Australian Open.

The Dubai Tennis Championships are played on hard courts outdoors, much like two of the Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian and US Opens, and offers prize money far beyond any of the major tournaments, with the men?s singles winner earning more than US$2,200,000 and the women?s singles winner taking home slightly less ? a clean two million dollars for the winning woman. Currently the reigning men?s singles champion is Serbia?s Novak Djokovic, while the women?s singles title is held by the USA?s Venus Williams. In recent years, however, the men?s tournament has traditionally been dominated by Swiss legend Roger Federer who, like the now-retired Belgian Justine Henin, has been triumphant four times between 2003 and 2007.

The tournament is a popular one among players, with the members of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) voting it the best venue in the world for three consecutive years. The Aviation Club Tennis Center has been the home of the tournament since its inauguration in 1993, when it was founded as a men?s singles tournament, adding a women?s singles tournament eight years later. The Aviation Club features arguably Dubai?s best pub ? certainly its best in the view of readers and writers of "What?s On" magazine ? the Irish Village. The stadium court itself has 5,000 seats and is known simply as the Dubai Tennis Stadium. A versatile arena, when it is not I use for tennis the stadium is a popular concert venue having played home to acts such as Sting, Coolio and Bally Sagoo as well as boxing bouts.

The winner of the Dubai Tennis Championships can usually be expected to have a fine season ahead of them, with the record Grand Slam-winning Federer having experienced great success here and, in 2009, players such as Djokovic and Williams experiencing excellent runs, with Djokovic considered by many to be the most likely long-term challenge to World Number One Rafael Nadal. Venus Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion and winner of many other Grand Slams, can pick and choose which tournaments she plays in these days, and routinely chooses to play in Dubai. The hard courts at the Aviation Club are reminiscent of many of the venues on the tour, with precious few choosing to host their tournaments on grass or clay courts, despite the latter?s association with hot weather, something Dubai knows all about.

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