Dubai: Call them the terrific twosome or the effective duo, but Salah Tahlak and Bharat Godkhindi are the ones working behind the scenes to make things happen for the annual two-week tennis extravaganza way before the first ball is struck.
Preparations for the Dubai Tennis Championships start with Wimbledon (starting end of June) when the duo travel to network and start getting players to confirm their participation for the next edition.
"Getting players is not as easy as it looks. It's difficult sometimes as the players demand a lot," said Godkhindi.
"But at the end of it, we ensure we assemble the best field. And whatever we do, we ensure we get more for Dubai," he added.
"All player negotiations are done by us. We normally start off from Wimbledon as the first tournament, and try to get the players at other major tournaments like the US Open, Miami, French Open, Shanghai and Melbourne to commit themselves to Dubai as early as possible," Tahlak disclosed.
Their travel and search for players has taken them places, but there is also the crucial element of a certain Colm McLoughlin willing to back up his team of two. "He (McLoughlin) has been simply amazing for us both. He has backed us at every step, and if people consider this competition a success, most of it should go to him," Tahlak added.
"We can compare Colm McLoughlin as the godfather of this tournament, and we as his two trusted generals," chipped in Godkhindi.
The combination between the UAE national and the Indian goes back to the early 90s when Tahlak joined Godkhindi then heading the marketing at Dubai Duty Free. Subsequently, Godkhindi parted ways as a full-time employee of Dubai Duty Free and Tahlak became the first UAE national to be appointed the Tournament Director.
"It's all about trust between the two of us. And we have Colm McLoughlin to back us up," admitted Tahlak. "People and positions changed through the passage of time, but our relationship stayed the same. We were meant to carry out a task, and we have been doing so from the inception of this competition," Godkhindi disclosed.
Besides being the Tournament Director, Tahlak is the Head of Corporate Communications at Dubai Duty Free while also being the official representative of the tournament owners.
Since those early years, Godkhindi has given up his fulltime job at Dubai Duty Free while taking over the tennis representation for the owners and organisers of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
As the dealing duo, both Tahlak and Godkhindi are now convinced more than ever that payment of appearance money is not the best route to the success of an event. "We recollect an instance when Doha paid close to half a million dollars for Pete Sampras. The American lost in the first round and went back. That was not a favourable return on the investment, and this is why we have realised that this system doesn't work," Godkhindi stated.