The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is all about fun for the thousands of fans who will flock to the Tennis Stadium over the next two weeks. But it’s also a sport and a job for the players and the many people who work on-court and off to make it one of the city’s leading events. So there’s a certain amount of etiquette that’s required. Chief of officials Hany Al Khafief shared his top tips for enjoying the event.
Should we cheer players on?
You are allowed to cheer your favourite player between points as much as you like, utilising any material or equipment such as a drum or trumpet. Most importantly, this should not happen during rally, between first and second serve, and not when the opponent makes an easy mistake or an unforced error.
A player is like an actor on the stage, he needs to feel that spectators are happy and enjoying, so he can perform better. Make them feel appreciated, show them that you are happy and entertained, if you want, shout out a funny message — at the right time.
You can also prepare some signage like ‘hot shot’, ‘I love you’, ‘marry me’, but make sure it has no advertisement or any abusive language.
When are we allowed to get up from the seats to move around?
Spectators have to understand that the players on court are ‘at work’ doing the job they like for a living, so we need to respect that and support them by providing them with the best environment to focus and concentrate. The general guideline is please remain in your seat during the rally and the game, but if you really need to move or change seat, use your common sense and choose the time that you will not disturb the players, for example, moving four or five seats at a time between points, or make a quick run toward the exit.
How long can a match go on for?
While planning the daily schedule, we usually plan an average of one-and-a-half to two hours for every match on hard-court surfaces and longer for clay-court tournaments, to include calling the match, walking in, warm up and the match duration. However, in reality, there will be couple of matches daily that go for three or four hours.
Can you eat and drink in the stands?
We don’t want you to starve or dehydrate but frankly speaking, the most annoying thing on this is the ‘littering’ as in the stand between the seats there are not enough dustbins for paper cups, wrapping paper and bags, so people end up placing them on the floor or cram them between seats. Further, in a small side court arena where the person is very close to the court, their movement is much noted by the players while unpacking plastic or paper bags and the noise associated, or while passing a pizza box around.
What should one wear to a match?
Wear something comfortable, it will be a long day outside, starting at 2pm when it’s warm and sunny ending at 11pm, when it’s really cold and windy.
It adds flavour to the stadium when we have people wearing their country’s colours or a certain pattern or in traditional outfit, i.e. Federer supporters are in red, Nadal followers use the yellow/red, Croatians in their royal blue.
Any other etiquette pointers?
Please respect ushers and ground staff volunteers, they are ladies and gentlemen serving you ladies and gentlemen. They are there to help you and assist in the running of the event. They have been given certain instructions and they are doing their job, so even though it doesn’t sound logical for you, please communicate your point of view in a proper manner.
Don’t...
Call the lines (such as yelling out in a close ball).
Make any noise during a rally.
Shout or yell between first and second serve.
Clap or cheer on an unforced error (or double fault) from a player.
Use flash photography at night
Never ‘boo’ a player or make verbal or visible abusive acts.
Do...
Put your mobile phone on silent.
If entering the stadium at the change of ends, when you only have 60 seconds to reach your seat, DO sit on the first available seat when the chair umpire calls ‘time’.
Interact with the game, support, cheer, get involved and initiate a Mexican wave.
Enjoy being there, even if your favourite player is not winning.
