The Dubai Tennis Open is a great opportunity to see the top tennis players in the world and is a highly recommended event to go and visit.

Tickets aren't quite the bargain that they were but at US$40 (AED 150) for the finals day in 2008 (in the cheap seats), they're still good value for an opportunity to watch some first class tennis in fantastic weather. Or go on one of the first three days when prices are around US$10 (AED 30-50 dhs), and easier to get. Tickets for the finals sold out very quickly in 2007, and are expected to disappear just as quickly in 2008.

More correctly known as The Dubai Tennis Championship, it is a yearly event held in mid February to early March as part of the ATP Tour for men and the WTA Tour for women. The tennis matches are held at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Garhood, where the Dubai Tennis Stadium is located, in Al Garhoud (on the Deira side of the Garhood Bridge traffic jam). Games are played on outdoor hard courts. The 5000 seat Dubai Tennis Stadium first opened for tennis in February 1996 and has hosted many exciting Dubai Tennis Championship games since then. There is one centre court, the remainder of the matches are played on other Aviation Club tennis courts.

From 2008 to 2010, the Dubai Tennis tournament will be known as the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, as Barclays signed a 3 year agreement in September 2007 to be the title sponsors. Dubai Duty Free are the main organisers of the event, and stump up the prize money. The individual men's and women's competitions are called the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open and Dubai Duty Free Women's Open.

The tournament started in 1993 for men and 2001 for women. Weather is almost always fantastic (there have been rain-stopped-play days once or twice in the late 1990s) with temperatures about 30 C and bright sunshine - bring sunscreen and water for the afternoon games. Evening games are in temperatures a couple of degrees lower.

The prize money is not insubstantial with $1.5m (AED 5.5m) for each of the respective Men's and Women's Championships for 2007 (increased from $1m in 2006), with $300,000 (AED 1.1 million) for the winners. Not bad for batting a fluffy yellow ball around for a couple of hours.

For food and drink, there is the excellent Century Village with a fine selection of restaurants, and the famous (or infamous) Irish Village for Guinness and stew. Both areas are right underneath the Dubai Tennis Stadium, and are popular eating and drinking holes during the tennis open. It's another excuse for expats to go out and party but you do see some great tennis and it's much more civilised than the Dubai Rugby Sevens.

The Dubai Tennis Stadium is not only used for the Dubai Tennis Open. Concerts and other events take place here including performances by Bryan Adams (every couple of years), Coolio, Shaggy, Sting, and Chris Eubank (he didn't sing).

The Dubai Duty Free Men's Open has won the ATP award for 'Tournament of the Year' several times, and the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open was given 'Tournament of the Year' award from the WTA in its first year - 2001.

2008 Women tennis players

2008 Men tennis players

Dubai Tennis Champions - Women

Dubai Tennis Champions - Men

Dubai Duty Free Women's Tennis open 2007

Justine Henin Belgium 1
Maria Sharapova Russia 2 (withdrew 15 Feb 2007)
Svetlana Kuznetsova Russia 4
Martina Hingis Switzerland 7
Patty Schnyder Switzerland 9
Francesca Schiavone Italy 15
Daniela Hantuchova Slovakia 17
Anna-Lena Groenefeld Germany 19
Na Li China 21
Katarina Srebotnik Slovakia 23
Alicia Molik Austria 23
Ai Sugiyama Japan 26
Anabel Medina Garrigues Spain 28
Maria Kirilenko Russia 29
Mara Santangelo Italy 30
Alona Bondarenko Ukraine 32
Eleni Danilidou Greece 35
Martina Muller Germany 36
Meghann Shaughnessy USA 40
Aravane Rezai France 41
Elena Vesnina Russia 42
Serena Williams USA 81 (withdrew 15 Feb 2007)

Dubai Duty Free Men's Tennis Open 2007

Roger Federer Switzerland 1
Rafael Nadal Spain 2
Nikolay Davydenko Russia 3
Tommy Robredo Spain 6
Marcos Baghdatis Cyprus 11
Tommy Haas Germany 12
Tomas Berdych Czech Republic 13
David Ferrer Spain 14
Novak Djokovic Serbia 15
Jarkko Nieminen Finland 18
Dmitry Tursunov Russia 21
Dominik Hrbaty Slovakia 22
Robin Soderling Sweden 23
Mikhail Youzhny Russia 25
Kristof Vliegen Belgium 37
Olivier Rochus Belgium 39
Stanislas Wawrinka Switzerland 40
Gilles Simon France 48
Hyung-Taik Lee South Korea 49
Jonas Bjorkman Sweden 50
Fabrice Santoro France 51
Marc Gicquel France 54
Igor Andreev Russia 136
Joachim Johansson Sweden 156