Dubai: The Tournament Director of the Dubai Tennis Championships Salah Tahlak has been re-elected as a Member of the ATP International Group Council for an additional three-year term.
The election took place during the course of the Barclays ATP Tour Finals that were scheduled to conclude with a mouth-watering finale between home favourite Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic at The O2 Arena in London late on Sunday.
A member of the ATP Global Tournament Council since 2010, Tahlak is the first and only Arab to be a member of both the ATP and the women’s WTA Tournament Councils. Tahlak, who has been associated since the early beginnings of the two-week long Dubai Duty Free-owned and organised annual Dubai Tennis Championships, served his first term on the prestigious ATP post from 2011 to 2014. He was elected a second time to serve till 2016 and earlier this week, he was inducted a third time to serve till the end of 2019.
Tahlak, who was recently promoted as Executive Vice President — Corporate Services at his parent company Dubai Duty Free, was pleased with his re-election to the ATP post. “The election was quite stiff this time, and I was overawed with the support I received from tournament directors of Doha, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland and St Petersburg in particular,” Tahlak told Gulf News on his return from London.
“That said, I am absolutely proud to represent, not just Dubai and the UAE, but the entire Arab region in the world of tennis. This honour will further help me to work even harder for the development of our sport in this part of the world,” he added.
The men’s tournament at the Dubai Tennis Championships will mark its silver jubilee in 2017 when the event is held at the Dubai Tennis Stadium from February 27 to March 4.
