Top-tier tennis and beach volleyball on show in Qatar

Qatar has become an established venue for high-level international sport. In tennis, both the WTA and ATP tours had their respective tournaments in Doha in February. And beach volleyball World's Beach Pro Tour Finals were held in Doha for the first time.

21-year-old Mubaraka Al-Naimi is Qatar’s highest-ranked player. She featured in the recent Qatar TotalEnergies Open, which welcomed some of the best players in the world.

Mubaraka Al-Naimi is a natural on the tennis court. But it wasn’t love at first swing.

"At the beginning, I didn’t want to play tennis," she says. "But my mom put me with my brother and then I started competing and winning some matches and then becoming number one all categories here in Doha."

While her brother eventually stopped playing, Al-Naimi quickly fell in love with the sport.

"Now tennis is part of my life," she says. "It’s like routine for me playing every day. It’s hard because I’m studying also in university. So, I’m trying to manage my time, competing, and studying at the same time. Tennis is my passion."

Coach Mounir Elaarej first met Al-Naimi at the Qatar Tennis Federation when she was 6 or 7 years old. Fast-forward more than a decade and he’s seen significant improvement in his star player.

"Technically, she’s one of the good players we have in Doha," he says." And she’s improving, she’s improved a lot in the way she's hitting the ball, moving on the court, on the way behaving on the court. We saw a lot of progress."

She hopes her presence in the Qatar TotalEnergies Open will inspire more young girls to pick up a racket. Her coach hopes she’ll one day be ranked among the top 100 players in the Women’s Tennis Association. and the competition is fierce.

"Millions of people are trying to get inside