The eyes of tennis lovers are on Abu Dhabi at present, hoping the Capitala World Tennis Championships provides some indication of the relative strength of Nadal, Federer, and Murray in advance of the Australian Open later this month. In Britain, especially, viewing figures will be high for the pictures from the Emirates, as there are high hopes this will be the year Andy Murray finally wins a slam.
The tournament signals the start of the biggest year yet for sport in the Emirates, with the UAE football team defending the Gulf Cup in Oman later this month, world No 2 Sergio Garcia, and No 4 Padraig Harrington, competing in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championships, and the year culminating with the Club World Cup- the one recently picked up by Manchester United in Japan - at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in December.
Economic prospects do not look bright in the UK, but I suspect there are still one or two fans trying to scrape together a few pennies for a trip east.
