Runa Reta - WISPA Squash Pro on Tour on www.squashtalk.com

Dec 10, 2005 - I often say that professional squash players do what they do for the love of the game, and not for the money or lavish lifestyles that some other high profile sports afford their competitors. Although we have accepted our position amongst the other more obscure and less respected sports of the world, the appalling conditions that the players were faced with in Qatar this year seem to suggest that we are continually willing to lower the bar in our standards of treatment, and that perhaps we carry as little respect for ourselves as professionals, as do others.

Runa I arrived in Doha via Hong Kong, which once having consulted a map and done the math, equaled an egregiously long trip from my hometown of Ottawa, Canada. Although I was in a surprisingly conscious and alert state for 2 days of travel, all I wanted to do when I got to the hotel was take a shower and pass out in a nice, comfortable bed.

THE WARNING SIGNS
Looking back on the experience, there were some clear signs that the tournament hotel we were staying at was not going to be up to par to the standards that we had grown accustomed to for the Qatar Classic (aka the biggest tournament of the year!) The first sign was the appearance of the hotel from the outside: an old, decrepit, lime-stained building. The second was the lobby, where check-in took forever because there was only one person working the desk, handing out single room keys that we were forced to leave at the front desk whenever we left the hotel for our other roommate(s) to pick up (actually, the room key was sign #3). The fourth was the trip up to the rooms, passing along dirty, stained hallways with random soiled furniture sparsely littered here and there. And fifth, was walking by the room of one of the English girls who had checked in just before me, standing in the doorway shaking her head with the look of sheer dread in her eyes.

Despite all of these warnings, I still prayed that the room somehow would be alright. It wasn’t. Suffice to say, I had stayed at one or two hostels in my lifetime that were nicer than this. Everything about the room was old, dark and dingy. The lighting was bad, the décor was tacky, and I am still trying to work out how some of the men were able to fit themselves on the tiny single beds (surely LJ must have been in the fetal position the whole time he slept there!) Considering that we had been put up at the likes of the Sheraton and Ritz-Carleton in previous years, and seeing as this was one of the most prestigious events of the season, you would have thought that the players would be treated to moderately nice lodging…heck, even a Comfort Inn would have been a palatial experience next to our hotel in Doha!

SHOCK AND DISBELIEF
Shock and disbelief ran rife amongst the players, as they arrived at the hotel and experienced the same feeling of dread upon entering their rooms. One of the players found a syringe lying on the floor of his room, and when he went to the front desk to inform them of his new finding, the clerk calmly explained that there were weightlifters staying in the hotel for a competition prior to our arrival. This should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. We spoke loudly about our dismay with the conditions of the hotel, and resolved to talk to the organizers and demand a more suitable place of lodgment. But did anything ever happen? Of course not.

Because the room I was staying in lacked the inviting atmosphere that I was hoping for, I decided to go hang out at the poolside, which was well-kept compared to the rest of the hotel. When I returned to the room a few hours later, I was already less appalled by my surroundings. By evening, I stopped noticing the dinginess of the room, and by the next morning I was totally used to the setting! (ashamedly, I was even a bit saddened to leave the room at the end of our stay in Doha…we had convinced ourselves that the room had character!) Clearly, the other players went through the same transition that I did (from abhorration to acceptance), for no one ended up sending any complaints regarding the poor quality of the hotel.

THE AIRWAYS EVENT
Another shocking yet humorous incident that occurred in the hotel, helped to reinforce our general unimportance as mere squash players. There were two squash courts at the hotel, which would end up being used heavily by the players, seeing as there are only two courts (and one all-glass court) at the venue we were competing at. Because I knew from previous experiences that we would only get a 20 minute practice on the courts at the venue, I decided to go down to the hotel courts to book some additional practice time.

There were posters for the squash tournament prominently posted in this area, and there was even a lunch area with food set up for the competitors. I thought “this is nice, looks like they’ve advertised our tournament pretty well, and they’ve even set up some lunch for us here!” When I asked the man working at the desk if I could just go ahead in and eat, he asked me if I was with “the” tournament. I replied that I was. He said no problem. Then I inquired about a court booking for later that day, and he looked at me quizzically. “Aren’t you with the tournament?” he asked, and I replied yes again. He gave me a sideways glance and said “there are matches on all day. Don’t you have a match today?”

At this point I was fairly confused, yet continued to explain to him that I wasn’t playing until Monday (it was now Saturday). He looked at me disbelievingly and then said “you sure you’re with the Qatar Airways squash tournament?” at which point I corrected him by saying “no, the Qatar Classic”. Turns out that there was a local tournament being held that weekend at the hotel courts called the ‘Qatar Airways’ tournament! When I looked more closely, I noticed that all the posters were for this event, and all the food was for these recreational (and I mean very recreational) players! I repeatedly told the man at the front desk, and then the organizer of this little event that I was here for the Qatar Classic, and both looked at me blankly. I then reiterated what I had just said by explaining that 100-plus of the best squash players in the world were staying in their hotel for this massive event and were probably going to start pouring in with requests to use the courts to practice. Again, blank stares now infused with a slight concern that there was no availability for the next two days as a result of the tournament being held there.

Could you believe it? The biggest tournament of the year, with the best players in the sport competing at their doorstep, and the greatest concern was for the smooth running of this local event! Even when we did manage to get on the courts, several days later, the squash managers showed no interest (and probably had no idea) who the players hitting on their courts were. One of the girls I trained with was actually told that she wasn’t allowed to wear flip-flops on the court (as if she didn’t know that), as she walked in with her shoes and racquet in her bag.

THE REALITY
I’m not one of those people who expects the best of conditions wherever I travel- I (as all the other players) have experienced plenty of awkward, uncomfortable and unpleasant situations, which at the end of the day I believe makes the tour humorous and interesting, and develops a sense of character and understanding that cannot be attained by other means. However, I do feel that at an event of this magnitude, when comfort and proper rest is a vital ingredient for high performance, it shouldn’t be that much to ask for a decent place of lodging.

A few years ago, the Classic was held at the Sheraton, then it moved to the Ritz, then the Ramada, and now our standards have dropped a few notches again this year. Next year will we be out in the parking lot on blowout mattresses?! Clearly, as squash players we lack the luxury of having any standards (we take what we are given), so if you’re an organizer reading this right now, please don’t acquiesce to the light bulb going off in your head suggesting that you can put us up in the cheapest dump in town, because let’s be honest, we won’t say anything, but we will surely be wondering how many more character building sessions we have to endure as squash professionals.