Qatar ExxonMobil Open

We were able to watch the Qatar ExxonMobil Open last Thursday! We were supposed to watch it with Mandy (our friend from Saudi) but he was unable to fly here on Wednesday as he was feeling quite sick. We bought him tickets too but alas, better to watch it at home than to make matters worse.

We got center court tickets for 100QR each. We were able to get some of the last tickets available so we didn’t have that much choice on the seats. Still, they were good and better than paying for a 10QR nosebleed seat. The Court was renovated. Probably up to International standards. However, the seats (20 feet behind the players) we usually get were now relegated to Corporate Sponsors boxes (5 figures per box). They also extended the upper gallery to accommodate more people (better to watch the game on TV than watch it that far). They have a Sky camera and now use Hawk-Eye in matches too! They even have a new on-court commentator which was 200% better than the previous.  All in all, the upgrades were good. Even buying tickets seem a better deal than watching for free and vying to get a seat in court.

We arrived at about 3:30, after eating our Hardees Take-Away in the car. There were not a lot of people when the first game started but they started pouring in after 5 PM. We were able to watch the top seeded players play; Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer. Andy Murray was also set to play but we decided to go home since Xiane was already sleepy and we knew his match wouldn’t be exciting. The highlight of the day was probably the fall of Nadal against the French Monfils.

Overall, it was good. I was expecting a WTA tournament this February but it seems they scraped that off for the WTA Year-End Sony Ericsson Championships 2009. Oh well.

 

Did you know that the other countries bidding last year to get the Sony Ericsson Championships were Bangalore, India; Istanbul, Turkey; and Monterrey, Mexico? Also, the event is to be held in Doha till 2010 and was a result of a $42 million agreement? Wow! I do salute those who made this possible and hope they get other tournaments here in Qatar like the Qatar Telecom German Open which is held in Germany (?) in May. Duh? Why in Germany for a Qatar named event? It seems that the Tournament Director for the Qatar Telecom German Open is also Karim Alami, who is the Director here in Doha. Still, his efforts are well appreciated by Tennis Fans in Qatar.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to buy tickets earlier for the WTA Year-End Sony Ericsson Championships on October 27 – November 1, 2009. By the way, it was Andy Murray who won against Roger Federer. Photos to follow…