Behind the scenes: Mildred Mendoza

It's the everyday employees at the barclays Dubai Tennis Championships who make sure everything runs smoothly.

For Mildred Mendoza, box office supervisor at the Dubai Tennis Championships, there's no such thing as a normal day. Usually stationed in the DDF Airport IT department, she's down at the tennis stadium every day until 10pm, supervising box office sales and coordinating online sales.

What's the biggest challenge of working at the box office?
It's very different from my day job, working at the tennis. The biggest challenge is definitely facing the customers. Because on the first day the tickets for the finals sold out, and everyday they were asking "how come?" the tickets were sold out. People were saying, "no, you should give us tickets". On the first day there was a very long queue and it was raining. We opened the box office at 9am, even though we were meant to open at 10am — they had been waiting there since 8am.

How long have you been working for Dubai Duty Free?
Fifteen years now.

How long have you been working at the tennis?
I've been working at the Dubai Tennis Championships for four years now, working in the box office.

What is a typical day for you?
I'm at the airport office from 7am, normally until 3pm and then I'm down at the tennis until the box office closes at 9pm. We have to reconcile the sales from the day, so I normally finish at 10pm.

Have you watched any tennis tournaments yourself?
Yes, I went to the US Open last year. I loved watching Roger Federer and Jelena Jankovic.

Is it busier than other years?
It's much busier than other years. The tickets for the finals sold out on the first day this year — even the grandstand seats and the semi-finals sold out on the first day. It's getting much bigger and busier, because last year it took three days for them to sell out — the finals actually sold out after maybe two days.

Have you had any problems so far this year?
No, it's all going very smoothly so far. The only problem was the customers getting annoyed about the tickets being sold out. They kept asking me "why"? Even a week before the box office opened, they were ringing all the time asking when it was going to open for ticket sales.

How well did the tickets sell online?
When the site opened for ticket sales at 10am on the first morning of sales, there were so many hits that I told them to close the online sales down. When we were selling in the box office, we had to keep checking the status of online sales, so we didn't exceed the capacity of the stadium. We were selling tickets in two places, so it had to be well coordinated.

Have you met any of the players this year?
No I haven't, but I've seen all of them from a distance.

Who would you most like to meet if you had the chance?
I would love to meet Maria Sharapova, she's very popular and a very good player. I like Justine Henin as well. I saw her at the Dubai Tennis Stadium and she looked up and smiled — she seems very friendly.

Are you looking forward to coming back next year?
Definitely, yes.