Dubai: The Dubai Tennis Championships has a standout feel about it, according to Bharat Godkhindi, one of the handful of officials who had built it up from scratch.

“This is a beautiful event and everyone has said that including Chris Kermode of the ATP and Steve Martin of the WTA. They have said this event is magic and it has got something about it which no other event has. It’s about the openness, about the way the court is so cosy, about the people running it, about the people behind it. There is something about it, some ambience, the friendliness of the place, but you can never put a finger on what it is,” pointed Godkhindi, who joined Dubai Duty Free in 1989.

Till then, Dubai Duty Free was only involved in smaller events like snooker and water-skiing. When he joined the brand-new retailer operations, Godkhindi’s first mandate from his boss Colm McLoughlin was “We need to use the medium of sport to promote the city of Dubai”.

Armed with this directive and a lot of dreams, Godkhindi went about his task and during the Sportel exhibition in Cannes, he met Jeff Chapman of the Hong Kong-based Prime Sports. Godkhindi requested Chapman to produce the 1990 Shotokan World Karate Championships, to be held at the Al Nasr Club.

Then came the occupation of Kuwait in 1991 and the region tried to grapple with the changing times. “It was at this juncture that His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai wanted us to stage this event,” Godkhindi recalled.

“A lot of people didn’t want to fly due to the situation in the region, but we actually flew in 500 of the competitors along with their coaches and other staff and had a wonderful competition in Dubai that was beamed live for the first time,” he added.

“My favourite memory is in 1993 and the idea that we created this international tennis event out of nothing. We staged it in the Aviation Club for the first time and we had 3,000 people cheering Karol Novacek. That was a magic moment for me,” he recounted.

The past 25 years have seen the event evolve into one of the most favoured tennis tournaments. “I think we are punching much above our category and I doubt if we need to do anything more. The logical question often asked is: “Should this be a 1000 ATP Masters event? I personally think that without being titled an ATP 1000 Masters, it is already so,” he added.