DUBAI // There was a surprising conclusion to the Dubai Championship doubles tournament as India's Leander Paes, the highly experienced exponent of that art, was forced to accept second prize along with his latest partner, Lukas Dlouhy, of the Czech Republic.
The second seeds were soundly beaten 6-2, 6-3 by the unseeded combination of Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley, of Australia.
Dlouhy suffered the ignominy of dropping his serve three times in the 56-minute contest, while Paes was broken in his first service game by the determined underdogs, who shared a purse of US$113,000 (Dh415,000).
"I didn't think it was going to be this easy of a match," said Aspelin.
"They struggled a little bit. But it's a huge confidence boost for the rest of this spring here. Paul and I have started the year well. We are playing with a lot of confidence right now. And it's great to win a big tournament like this here in Dubai."
Hanley added: "We had a good week in Rotterdam [a fortnight ago] making the final. So to go one better the next final we play is encouraging.
"It's really important to keep the momentum going. I'm really happy with the start we've had for the year."
A disconsolate Paes reflected: "We didn't play our best tennis today. I just felt that we got off to a bad start again. The last three days I've started off really poorly.
"Once you get off to a bad start, it's a drawback. But we just lost to a better team today. They played solid."
Dlouhy was irritated that he and Paes could not repeat the form they had shown to overcome Christopher Kas and Dick Norman in a thrilling semi- final.
"Today was a very bad match from our side," he admitted.
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Started: 2020
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Sector: Entertainment
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Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Tips from the expert
Dobromir Radichkov, chief data officer at dubizzle and Bayut, offers a few tips for UAE residents looking to earn some cash from pre-loved items.
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