Sunday, February 19, 2017

Qatar Total Open 2017


This is week was the ladies tennis tournament, the Qatar Total Open. I didn’t have tickets for the preliminary rounds and that might've been for the best -- it has been cold, windy, and rainy all week. I'm a bit surprised they managed to get all the games done because on some of the days it rained all day, a rarity for Qatar.

The weather improved yesterday just in time for the finals, which I did have tickets for. A couple of friends of mine got tickets to the men’s final but didn't have any extras so I couldn't go to what turned out to be an amazing match. Thus we all agreed that we get tickets for the ladies finals so that we could all go. Three of my friends and I headed out in one car (to avoid a lot of parking hassle and mud). The tickets were VIP so that was a big plus as we got to hang out in the VIP area, chat, and enjoy some complementary food and hot beverages while we waited for the match to start. I had only been to the VIP area once before, I think a couple of years ago, and while they had nice facilities it took a while to get in. You have got to go to a desk and receive a bracelet to be allowed into the area and unfortunately there was a big lineup because there were not enough people at the desk.


Anyway we headed to our seats while the match was starting. It was cold and windy (around 14 degrees and humid) so even with three layers on I was still feeling the cold a bit. I felt sorry for the players as they were still wearing small skirts and Wozniacki was even wearing short sleeves. They must have been freezing the moment they stopped running around.


Anyway it was a reasonable match, nothing like the Djokovic/Murray final earlier at the men's tournament, but Wozniacki managed to climb back from a 4-0 deficit in the first set to at least make it a battle. In the end World #3 Karolina Pliskova won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

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