Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships boss eyes bigger and better things
Tahlak says WTA award will only push organisers more in Expo 2020 edition
Dubai: Dubai Duty Free are confident of scaling even greater heights after bagging yet another international tennis award.
The WTA announced the winners of the annual year-end tournament and player awards, as voted by the player body. The tournament awards are broken down into four categories, reflecting the different levels of WTA tournaments, with the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (DDFTC) walking away with the best WTA Premier 5 award.
The WTA Premier Mandatory award went to BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, while the WTA Premier award went jointly to the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart and the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy. This is only the second time that Dubai has won this award since the new format was introduced in 2014.
“To me this is a result for all the hard work put in by each and every one across the board to make this tournament successful every year. It’s been a while since we last won this award. I want to say a big thank you to each and everyone, especially to the players for giving us this recognition,” Salah Tahlak, Tournament Director of DDFTC, told Gulf News.
“Honestly, I believe we really deserve to win this one. We have been outstanding and since this award comes from the players themselves, there is no doubt that this recognition will only push us to get better for the next year.”
Tahlak also hoped that the award would put the tournament to go even higher. “This definitely means more pressure on us to sustain our position and staying at the top will be the challenge.
“We are serious in what we do, and we are happy as this award comes just before our 20th anniversary next year. And then we have the Expo 2020. There are all good things happening and we can expect a strong line-up in Dubai in 2020.”