ABSTRACT
“Do they play tennis?” an American anthropologist once asked me in reference to Qatari sport practice. This question triggered a number of issues relevant to the focus of this chapter. First, in relation to the socio-economic status of tennis, perceived as a sport of the “rich”. Why, then, did the Qataris, who had the highest GDP in the Arab world, not engage with tennis, supposedly the natural sporting activity that reproduces the lifestyle and tastes of the rich? The other dimension of the question is the cultural representation of competitive sport, as defined by Western-European values of modern sport practice. Tennis with its rational performance system and compartmentalised space is representative of Westernised advances and modernity. Interestingly my interlocutor did not ask me whether they practiced horse-riding or camel-racing, maybe to avoid the trap of orientalism, but he did not ask me whether they played football either – the very question that you might expect in reference to (male-dominated) sporting culture in the region and elsewhere. The conversation has helped persuade me to reflect on the societal significance of tennis in the region, which is the chief aim of this chapter.
