NEWS - Qatar Olympic Committee

o o o o o o o o o
WORLD CLASS
TENNIS
STAGING THE WTA’S SONY ERICSSON CHAMPIONSHIP HAS RAISED QATAR’S PROFILE AS EVENT HOSTS AND
SEALED ITS REPUTATION AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S TENNIS HOT SPOTS
THAT WINNING
Qatar is emerging as one of the fastest growing and most reliable of
event venues on the world tennis circuit.
Recognition of this fact came in November when the Women’s
Tennis Association (WTA) staged its prestigious end-of-season
tournament, the Sony Ericsson Championships, in Doha - the fi rst of
three such Championships to be staged in the capital.
Qatar beat off challenges from Bangalore, India; Istanbul, Turkey
and Monterrey, Mexico, for the right to host the event, which saw the
top eight women’s players vie for the prestigious title.
After six days of fi erce competition, America’s Venus Williams raised
the trophy in front a packed crowd at the Khalifa Tennis Complex, but
as Sony Ericsson WTA Tour CEO, Larry Scott, explained, the event
also signalled a victory for Qatar and the region.
“Qatar is a country that is emerging in its sports event organisation
bona fi des,” says Scott. “When I was with the ATP, we pioneered eff orts
to bring tennis to the region, and the leaders and federations here have
always exceeded their obligations and our expectations.”
Scott is quick to acknowledge the role that the Middle East now
plays in promoting world tennis. “� e Middle East region is a part of
the world, quite separate from the economic events we are facing right
now, which has huge potential,” he says.
“� ere are one billion people within a four-hour fl ight of Qatar,
and when you start to talk about the size of the market and a growing
media market, it’s an attractive proposition.”
Scott adds that there was also what he calls a ‘social reason’ for
choosing Doha for the Sony Ericsson.
“Tennis is the leading global sport for women, however there’s never
been a major event like this in the region. It’s part of a social
transformation and an opportunity for younger women to take an
interest in the sport.”
12 QATARSPORT Q5.09
Images from the fi nal of
the WTA Sony Ericsson
Championships in Doha
won by Venus Williams
Of course, for the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF), there was as
much, if not more, at stake in hosting the Sony Ericsson as there was
for the sport’s governing body.
To put its signifi cance in some perspective, tennis has been integral
to the state’s development of its sporting profi le for more than 15 years.
In December 1992, the QTF unveiled the Khalifa International Tennis
Complex and within a month, it was hosting the fi rst ATP Qatar
Open, an event that has subsequently been graced by the likes of Boris
Becker, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
Another step-change came in 2001 when the QTF took the decision
to host the fi rst ladies tennis championship ever held in the Middle
East - the WTA Qatar Open, which has received the full backing from
the world of women’s tennis.
In 2004, the Qatar Open was upgraded to a Tier II event with total
prize money of $600,000. In 2008, it became a Tier I event - off ering
a prize fund of $2.5 million.
But the Sony Ericsson Championships are rightly regarded as the
most prestigious event on the QTF’s books. In November, the WTA
Tour’s top eight singles players and top four doubles team competed
for prize money of $4.45 million with Venus Williams claiming the
fi rst prize of $1.34 million.
But the QTF’s event hosting ambitions do not end there. As the
Sony Ericsson Championships Technical Director Karim Alawi told
Qatar Sport: “It’s important for us to organise events of the Sony
Ericsson’s standard - it’s one of the exams we have to pass to organise
even bigger events.”
It’s a statement that testifi es to Qatar’s determination to become a
world-class sports hub - and one that should keep the eyes of the
sporting world on Qatar well beyond Doha’s third and fi nal Sony
Ericsson Championship in 2010.