After the first grand slam of the year in Melbourne, our tennis stars are scattered all over the world- literally from South America to the Middle East, playing tournaments in sunny parts of the world like Doha, Qatar and Vina del Mar, Chile. Qatar is turning into quite the center of attraction for world class atheletes. The connection is quite incestous. Nasser Al Khelaifi is a Qatari businessman and the president of PSG or Paris Saint Germain FC. Did I tell you that Khelaifi is also the general manager of al-Jazeera Sport, the Qatar-owned TV station and, after the PSG takeover, the media outlet bought up a tranche of Ligue 1 broadcast rights, to emerge as competition to the previously dominant Canal Plus. Al-Jazeera has launched the subscriber channels beIN Sport 1&2 in France to screen its matches and Khelaifi is an emerging media rights player. He refused to comment on whether he would bid for the overseas rights to the Premier League when they became available.
Money is obviously flowing like oil. Al Khelaifi recruited Beckham on a 5-month contract to join PSG at 8,00,000 Euros a month or 1 mil USD that he will be donating to charity. An estimated 212 million pounds has already been spent. The 38 year old Khelaifi is suave, smart and seriously well connected. He also has some heavy- weight connections like that of crown prince of Qatar, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. They met through tennis.
Oh and Qatar will also be hosting the World Cup (football) in 2022.
Ok now back to out tennis stars and their activities for the next couple of months before Roland Garros.
The next hotspot of Miami, where the Sony Open will be played. Rafa played in Chile and then flew to Brazil to play in the Brazil Open in Sao Paolo which he won by defeating David Nalbandian. This the Mallorcan's first trophy since his French Open win (def. Djokovic) in 2012.
Meanwhile Victoria Azarenka defeated Serena Williams in Doha Open. looks like some surfing in Malibu did her good. Vika retained her title but lost the No 1 ranking to Williams who has climbed back on a good two year gap.
The nest ATP world tournaments are places like Memphis, Marseilles, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Acapulco and Delray Beach. And this is only the timetable till February end! Of all these ATP tournos, Dubai will have the maximum traction- there are all the usual culprits from Top 10 in men's and woman's tennis, with Maria Sharapova, Nadal, Murray, Ferrer being the only exceptions. Tickets can be found at www.timeouttickets.com
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis offers a grand spectacle the mundane name of the championship notwithstanding!
