WTA lauds 2001 DDF Ladies event

The 2001 Dubai Duty Free (DDF) Ladies Tennis Tournament has been voted the best in the world by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) players.

"Last year, we organised a ladies tennis tournament - a WTA event. It is a tier-two tournament. The players on the world tour voted the Dubai tournament for 2001 as the best tournament in the world, including the tier one's," Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, told Gulf News.

"Salah Tahlak, who is our tournament director, was in Los Angeles at a tournament directors' meeting. And, there was a tournament going on there. The award was presented to him on the centre court by officials of the WTA.

"The award is for the Best Ladies Tournament in the World, voted by the players. We got lots of awards and they are all very motivating for our staff. No matter how many we win, it is always exciting," McLoughlin added.

Dubai Duty Free is involved in several sporting events.

In its tenth year so far, and the Duty Free Golf Tournament organised by the DDF will have the largest ever field of players from around the world.

"We created ten years ago, a duty free golf tournament, which is truly for the duty free industry. And people come from all over the duty free business around the world to play in it. This is the tenth year, and so far it's the biggest entry we've had - we will have 80 or 90 overseas participants in our two-day golf tournament here," McLoughlin said.

He said DDF has also been actively involved overseas in horse racing.

"We've been involved in England, in Newbury, for about five or six years and we do two race meets. We created, in September of each year, a brand-new racing day in the English racing calendar. It is called the "Dubai Duty Free International Race Day."

"At Ascot each year, the DDF sponsors the rest of the world team of the Shergar Cup. It is a competition between UK and Ireland jockeys versus jockeys from the rest of the world.

"It has been run three times and we have won it once," McLoughlin said.

"This year, we started sponsoring races in Ireland and helped to create a Dubai Day there. Emirates airline and the Darley Stud have been involved for many years in sponsoring the Irish Oaks," he added.

McLoughlin said for many years now, DDF has been involved in tennis. "I think we are coming into our 11th men's Dubai Open, and we're coming into our third ladies tennis tournament - known as the Dubai Tennis Championships."