Many of the best tennis players in the world will soon be in Dubai to compete at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships as the WTA Tour concludes its Middle East swing.
Here is everything you need to know about the WTA 1000 tournament.
What is it?
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is a professional tennis event that runs for two weeks. The first week is dedicated to the WTA Tour’s women’s tournament and is followed by the ATP Tour’s men’s competition. This year will be the 24th edition of the WTA championship.
When is it?
The 2024 WTA tournament begins on February 18 with the first round of the main draw and concludes on Saturday, February 24, with finals day.
Where is it?
The championships take place at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, formerly known as the Aviation Club.
Who's playing?
More accurately, who isn’t playing? For many years, Dubai and the Qatar Open traded 1000 status – or its equivalent – but since earning permanent 1000 status, all of the top players have confirmed for this year's tournament.
Every member of the WTA Tour’s ‘Big Four’ will be competing in Dubai: world No 1 Iga Swiatek, Australian Open champion and world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, US Open champion and world No 3 Coco Gauff and world No 4 Elena Rybakina, who is aiming for the UAE double having won the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open this month.
Further star power is added in the form of Tunisian world No 6 Ons Jabeur, while China’s world No 7 Qinwen Zheng will also play, weeks after reaching the Australian Open final. Barbora Krejcikova, who defeated Swiatek in last year’s final, will return to defend her title.
In all, nine of the world’s top 10 and 17 of the top 20, will compete at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
What is the tournament schedule?
Friday, February 16: Qualifiers
Saturday, February 17: Qualifiers
Sunday, February 18: First round
Monday, February 19: First round
Tuesday, February 20: Second round
Wednesday, February 21: Third round
Thursday, February 22: Quarter-finals
Friday, February 23: Semi-finals
Saturday, February 24: Finals
Are tickets still available?
Tickets are still available for all seven days of the tournament, according to the tournament website. Tickets come in three tiers: Grandstand, Prime A and Prime B. For the first, second, and third rounds, Grandstand tickets are Dh55, Prime B Dh105 and Prime A Dh160.
For the quarter-finals, Grandstand tickets are Dh160, Prime B Dh210 and Prime A Dh265. Semi-final tickets start at Dh265, with Prime B Dh370 and Prime A Dh420. For finals day, Prime A tickets have sold out, but Grandstand (Dh370) and Prime B (Dh525) are still available.
Will it be broadcast on TV?
For tennis fans in the UAE who want to watch the tournament on television, it will be broadcast live on Dubai Sports. For international viewers, the full list of partner networks can be found here.
For more information about the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, visit the official website.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
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Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
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Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
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Proudest achievement: “I came to a new country and started this shop”
Favourite TV programme: the news
Favourite place in Dubai: Al Fahidi. “They started the metro in 2009 and I didn’t take it yet.”
Family: six sons in Dubai and a daughter in Faisalabad
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scores:
England: 290 & 346
Sri Lanka: 336 & 243
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
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if you go
The details
Heard It in a Past Life
Maggie Rogers
(Capital Records)
3/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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- 600-seat auditorium
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About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
