The only remaining tennis court at the Alwiyah Club, which is in near constant use. Before a few years ago, the club had several, but they have been recently paved over to make room for more socialising.

Professional virtuoso Gertrude Bell, a social tennis player and British diplomat who aided in redrawing the Middle East’s post WWI colonial borders, isn’t buried at the Alwiyah Club — her grave lies in a British cemetery just across the Tigris — but she might as well have been. Since she founded the tennis and social club in 1924, Alwiyah has paid homage to her with a portrait passed by the rulers of the Middle East, the Sheikhs and Emirs who keep rebuilding its countries and the racquet sports celebrities of the era.

Today, Alwiyah is more of a social club than a tennis hangout, reduced from nine courts to one tennis and one squash court to make space for more ballrooms. The more serious players go to the Iraqi Tennis Federation’s courts next door to Al-Sha’ab Stadium, the Itaqi Hunting Club or one of the various universities to have a “knock-about,” as they say in the UK. Symbolically, however, Alwiyah is credited with not only being the place where Bell promised Arabs a state after the Ottomans Empire fell, but also one of the first tennis hubs for the Middle East elite — the place where the British and King Faisal, followed by Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakher of the Ba'ath Party then his former deputy, Saddam Hussein, celebrated St. Georges Day, St. Andrews Day and the Queen’s Birthday with film nights, “pub” quizzes, tennis, snooker and swimming.

Gertrude Bell (third from left) following a tennis match in her native England.

“Much of the social life revolved around the Al-Wiyah (British) Club… particularly the swimming pool which allowed us to cool off during the hot summers,” wrote Richard Ambler, the son of a British diplomat who lived in 1970s Iraq. “…As there was no television, English cinema or theatre we organised our own entertainment; film nights, quiz nights and sports events. They also did a wicked curry on a Friday.”

Currently, the Gulf Corporation Countries and Morocco play host to tennis nobility when it’s too cold and rainy (or snowy) to play in the UK, USA, Europe or most of the Northern Hemisphere. Last week, the WTA turned up in the UAE for the Mubadala Abu Dhabi open, in which Swiss standout Belinda Bencic (WTA No. 65) came back from maternity leave to clinch the title over American newcomer Ashlyn Krueger (WTA No. 40) in three uneven sets. This week, while the men duke it out in Dallas, the women, including Arab/Tunisian favorite, Ons Jabeur (in her tenth appearance), flew 45 minutes across the Gulf to Doha, where they are competing for nearly $600,000 and the golden Falcon trophy in the WTA1000 Qatar Total Energies Open.

Qatar captured the tennis world’s attention with a host of exhibitions between Rafa and Roger on land and sea, including playing on a native Dhow boat and then a “Magic Carpet.”

So far, the only Brit in the draw, Emma Raducanu, exited in the first round, while the Europeans and Jabeur have made quick work of the Americans, sending out Coco Gauff (WTA No. 3), Mccartney Kessler (WTA No. 55), Alycia Parks (WTA No. 80), Peyton Sterns (WTA No. 47), Krueger and Emma Navarro (WTA No. 9) in the first or second rounds. Only Sofia Kenin (WTA No. 73), Jessica Pegula (WTA No. 5) and Amanda Anisimova (WTA No. 41) remain out of 10 Americans who signed up to play in this key ally state.

The Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex offers up some of the best match-ups Wednesday, despite Aryna Sabalenka’s (WTA No. 1) two-point, third-set tiebreak loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova (WTA No. 26) last night. (The orange-and-white kitten that strolled on to the court must have caught Sabelenka’s eye.) Local favorite Jabeur (WTA No. 35), who bested Chinese battle-axe Qinwen Zheng (WTA No. 7) in two quick-and-tidy sets (6-4, 6-2), takes on Kenin, while Daria Kasatkina (WTA No. 12) faces Pegula and the American Anisimova engages in a tariff-free battle against Canadian Leylah Fernandez (WTA No. 27).

The outside wall of the Alwiah Club, near Firdos Square, indicating the club’s entrance in Arabic script.

Immediately after Qatar, the women fly back to the Emirates for the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships next week, and the men land in the Gulf for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, with Carlos Alcaraz making his first appearance, Novak Djokovic returning for the countless time and Jannik Sinner up to prove that he doesn’t need steroids to compete in this “drug-free” country. Word is still out on whether one of them will pop out of a genie lamp before appearing on court, ala Roger and Rafa who played on Dhow boats, magic carpets and in ancient, candle-lit village courts to get people to come watch tennis in Arabia.

Back in Iraq, both tennis and Padel move forward in Bell’s tennis-loving Alwiyah legacy — for both women and men. The country lost its Fed Cup team in 2014 during the Civil War between the government and Al-Qaeda, followed by Da’esh. It recently developed a Billie Jean King Cup team with mixed success, losing last year in bagels and breadsticks to Myanmar.

Along with the rest of Baghdad, the Alwiyah Club is getting a post-war makeover, courtesy of Gulf and Lebanese billionaire businessman bankrolling local establishments.

The Davis Cup team, which was practically obliterated in a horrific attack outside Alwiyah in May 2006, has fared better, actually beating the UAE team in Asia/Oceania Group IV last year and committing again to 2025. The only survivor of that attack, in which two players and the coach were shot in cold blood by Al-Qaeda outside Alwiyah, Akram Mustafa Abdulkarim Al-Saadi (42) still competes, notching the most singles and doubles wins in 14 years. “It was not sectarian violence — one was Shia, the other two were Sunni,” Abdulkarim Al-Saadi told Agence France Presse in 2006. “(The Davis Cup players) were wearing tennis shorts and sports gear after training. They were killed because they were athletes.”

Bell might not have known the ultimate consequence of her actions when she died at age 57 in the boiling heat of July 1926, but her compatriots certainly left a mixed legacy in Baghdad — a typically well-organised civil service, palace intrigue and the tradition of clubs. Life went on at Alwiyah through all the Ba’ath party upheavals, the first Gulf War, followed by the American invasion and the country’s civil war. Although Saddam’s vision of Iraq as the Pan-Arab capital was never realized, Iraqis took up the survive and thrive challenge, especially the business-class following the 1990 Gulf War. “New billionaires” — mostly Syrian and Lebanese — made more money reconstructing the bombed Iraqi infrastructure. Today, eight years after Da’esh was officially eradicated, they are further enriching their companies with mostly new blocks of condos inside the Green Zone and to the West of the City Center — Alwiyah is also getting a makeover.

A tennis statue circa the 1960s upon the grounds of the Al-Sha’ab Stadium where the best tennis players in Iraq duke out it for spots on the Davis and BJK Cup teams as well as the No. 1 ranking.

The entrance to the courts of the Al-Sha’ab stadium.

Despite the rebuilding, things in Baghdad didn’t get much better for several more years with resilient players just accepting that if they didn’t have the money to go abroad, they would get up in the morning, train and face the prospect of never coming home. Al-Qaeda remained on the periphery of the city until 2013, when it moved inside, putting bombs everywhere: on the streets, in city squares, in crowded shopping centres and cafes. One day a national player wanted to go to Alwiyah to train and the road was blown up. When national players were asked about their life’s work, they answered “student,” as they faced death if they said professional athlete. Some didn’t leave their houses for anything, even food, out of fear of death.

One of Al-Sha’ab’s training courts in 2025.

Al-Sha’ab’s center court with its red, white and black seats underneath the press and dignitary boxes.

As for Gertrude Bell, she and her diplomat friends left a mixed legacy in Iraq. “Miss Bell,” as Iraqis still call her, helped carved out the lines that turned tribal territories into states, trying to knit Iraq’s volatile mix of religious sects and ethnicities into a stable nation. In her time, she was more influential than Lawrence of Arabia — even though he achieved international fame for his exploits — and many, including King Faisal, the Hashemite ruler installed by the British in 1921, considered her one of the few true friends to the Arabs, someone who worked hard for Arab self-determination and the “first lady of Iraq.”

But Bell’s dream of a unified, peaceful and prosperous Iraq for all existed mostly at the Alwiyah club, the place where Sunni and Shiite, Arabs and Kurds played tennis together. And despite the Americans encountering the same issues as Bell after World War I, 80 years later, the Alwiyah still stands as the ultimate memorial — in a city awash with monuments to everyone — to a woman and her sport.

A junior player prepares to hit a forehand at the Al Sha’ab courts on a warm, Wednesday night in Central Baghdad.

Rally: All Things Racquet

Rally, conceived of and designed by two long-time players is both a booking interface on Kickstarter and an AI-powered concierge that:

1. Allows players to find, book and pay for both public and private pickle, Padel and tennis courts around the world with the tap of a phone
2. Gives users choice among surfaces, dates, locations and times to play their favorite racquet sports
3. Permits private clubs to sell their unused court time on the main app and gives them a bespoke white-label booking app for their members
4. Matches players with coaches to help them increase their business at public/private courts, and
5. Provides easy access to peer-to-peer hitting, as well as sessions with professional “sparring partners,” stringing, equipment purchasing and all things tennis, padel and pickleball.

For now, in addition to the Kickstarter, players can also check out plans for the app on the Rally website — with free access to some of the best tips and tricks for your game.