The Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open kicked off its third edition this week at the International Tennis Centre, Zayed Sports City.

Who ever thought 25 years ago there would be a Middle East swing in tennis — or for that matter, players from MENA competing in the draw? As the bombs fell on Baghdad in 2003 and news of the ISIS massacre of the Iraqi Davis Cup team outside the city’s most exclusive club reached the West, tennis seemed like a long-distance afterthought.

But if China can have a pro tennis tour 30 years after opening to the west, why can’t all those countries gathered around the Persian Gulf? Or is it the Arabian Gulf? Or if Donald Trump had his way, the Pan-American Gulf?

Bad Trump jokes aside, yesterday 28 of the top women’s players and 16 doubles teams descended on the international tennis center at Zayed Sport City to power-baseline through eight days with the hope of emerging with just over $2 million and a trophy in the shape of a flame, a falcon, a tennis racquet that transforms into a falcon or something else uniquely Arab.

Belinda Bencic of Switzerland holding her racquet Facoln. She saved three championship points to become the first ever champion of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open in 2023.

On the first day of the Mubadala (Investment Bank) Abu Dhabi Open, American qualifier Katie Volynets (WTA No. 68) edged out British qualifier Sonay Kartal (WTA No. 91) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to move into the last 16 and face the top seed Elena Rybakina (WTA No. 5). Tomorrow, on the other half of the draw, Tunisian Ons Jabeur — who saw her ranking slip from the Top 10 to WTA No. 33 after a four-month injury break — takes on the little-loved Latvian on tour, Jelena Ostapenko (WTA No. 35). Following that, constant coach-switching Brit Emma Raducanu (WTA No. 56) will see if Croatian Roman Kelecic can help her deliver some results against Czech MarketaVondrousova (WTA No. 37) after she abruptly dropped Nick Cavaday — her coach of 14 months.

Everybody’s coach and commentator, Rick Macci, isn’t so sure about Raducanu. “(Emma) has (had) more coaches the past 4 years than titles so maybe she should hire Emma to coach Emma,” Macci posted on X, after he turned her offer down, citing “travel reasons,” among other matters. “… Emma can beat anybody anytime anywhere including herself if she does not have the right proven voice and inner secret sauce.”

Emma Raducanu said goodbye to coach Nick Cavaday and hello again to Roman Kelecic, whom she hopes can help her seize her 2021 U.S. Open gusto again in 2025.

It’s really anybody’s game in the up-and-down-and-all-around WTA ladder.

Now for the confusing part: the Doha-Dubai men’s and women’s Islamic separation of the sexes switcharoo. As Dubai frenemy, Doha, tries to keep up with its neighbor to the South (and the rest of the UAE), the ATP and WTA players will be puddle-jumping the Gulf for the next month. The women have kicked it off with Abu Dhabi from now until 8 February and will jet over to the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, a WTA 1000 event at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex starting 9 February. Following that, it’s back to the UAE for another WTA 1000 tournament, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships starting on 16 February. The guys do the Qatar ExxonMobil Open from 17-22 February (while the women are back in the UAE) and then have their own version of the Dubai Duty Free from 24 February to 1 March. (Sorry, guys, no Abu Dhabi for you.)

It’s enough to make a pundit’s head rotate as fast as a Sabalenka-hit tennis ball. As for the men, in addition to the Big Three (Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz) pledging to turn up in Qatar, hopefully we’ll see Lebanese player Hady Habib raise the Cedar-Tree flag in his native region. “It feels amazing like to be able to unite the Lebanese community in a way … and for them to share my victory with me is very special,” Habib said after his first-round win at last month’s Australian Open.

“I always had goals to play these big tournaments, but at times it seemed very far, I’m not going to lie. I had some challenging moments in my career playing for a small country with limited financial help from the government.”

Join the MENA tennis club, Hady. But as the Middle East finds its inner-strength, so do its tennis players.

Sea Blue in Abu Dhabi or just plain ol’ blue in Doha? Who has the pretty stadium? Qataris will say Qatar and Emiratis will say the UAE. At the end of the match, it’s just nice to see tennis in the Middle East, even if the tournament names are six words long.

Rally: All Things Racquet (Demo Above)

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