Qatar Total Open
It’s Qatar Total Open! The yearly tennis tournament which is part of the Sony Ericsson Tour for the ladies will start on February 26 to March 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex. Big name attendees for this year would be Martina Hingis (winner of the first tournament on 2001), Justine Henin-Hardene, Anastasia Myskina (winner of 2002 and 2003), Svetlana Kuznetsova, Daniela Hantuchova, Ana – Lena Goenefeld, Ai Sugiyama, Alicia Molik, Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza (popular to the Indian crowd). Nadia Petrova wouldn’t be able to defend her title as she backed out due to an injury. Also, winner of the 2005 tournament, Maria Sharapova, is not on the list. Might be that the pot for the Qatar Total Open is too small for her?
Anyway, it really is nice that Qatar sponsors such big event and is able to bring tennis stars in Qatar. We were able to watch some games last year as tickets are basically free. You just arrive at the gate and ask the reception for tickets. He/She would in turn ask you for how many people and would gladly give you your free tickets. I’m not sure if this is true for the Finals though. I’m expecting a friend from Saudi to arrive on the weekend of the tournament as he is also a tennis fan, especially of Hingis. Hopefully, the weather would be good and not rainy.
