When Gwen Tan arrived in the UAE in 2005, tennis was nowhere in her plans. She had built a career in luxury retail in Singapore, had no sporting background, and was not looking to change either. It took sixteen more years and one spontaneous decision before she would go on to create Tennis 360, now one of Dubai’s most recognised tennis communities.
She picked up a racquet for the first time at 41. By her own admission, she was not good. But she kept showing up.
Those early months were tough. She was spending up to 15 hours a week on the court, rallying with whoever was available, children, retirees, coaches. What she noticed was not a lack of coaching options. It was a lack of community. Beginners had nowhere to belong.
“I could take lessons, but as a beginner, nobody wanted to hit me,” she recalls. “There was no one to play with.”
That observation became the foundation of everything that followed.
Building from the Outside In
Tennis 360 did not start as a carefully planned business. Tan began by helping a group of coaches handle administrative and logistical tasks. But what she observed as a client and as a parent made clear that something more structured was needed. The tennis scene in Dubai, she felt, lacked consistency and proper organisation.
So she built the thing she had been looking for herself: structured programmes, reliable delivery, and a genuine sense of belonging. Simple in theory. Demanding in practice.
Today, Tennis 360 operates a full calendar of leagues, training sessions and social events. Its reputation, Tan says, rests on one quality above all others: consistency. People return because they know what they are going to get.
A League of Their Own
One of her most notable achievements is the UAETF Inter-Club Ladies Doubles League, which now carries official recognition from the UAE Tennis Federation. It began with just 24 women hitting together casually. It has since grown to more than 150 active players spread across several clubs, with formal rankings, structured rules and weekly match fixtures.
Tan takes equal pride in what unfolds away from the court. After every match, both teams gather together over coffee and snacks, win or lose. At the close of each season, players are celebrated not only for their results but also for qualities such as sportsmanship and team improvement.
“People have formed real friendships here,” she says. “They travel together, and their families know each other. That is when you know it is more than just tennis.”
On Passion, Discipline and the Myth of the Overnight Story
Tan is candid about something that might surprise people. She does not believe that passion drives lasting success.
“When things get hard, passion fades,” she says. “What matters is discipline being structured, resourceful, consistent.
She had no qualifications when she started. No sports background, no business plan, no clear direction. What she had was a refusal to walk away when things were difficult, a willingness to learn on the job, and the habit of showing up even when progress was slow.
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For young players coming through Tennis 360, Tan’s philosophy is evident in the academy’s approach to development. Rather than pushing children toward early specialisation, the focus is on building fundamental athletic qualities balance, coordination, agility and movement.
“First the athlete, then the player,” she says. “We are shaping you for life, not just for the podium.”
Showing Up Is the Strategy
It is a considerable distance from a retail floor in Singapore to running one of Dubai’s most active tennis communities. But for someone who had no plan and no background, and who first held a racquet at 41, the principle Gwen Tan returns to is the most straightforward one of all.
She could have stepped back when the opportunity first appeared. Instead, she stayed, put in the work, and kept going one session, one rally, one day at a time. Her story is a testament to resilience, proving that reinvention can begin at any stage of life, even while building a dynamic lifestyle in Dubai, where modern pursuits often intersect with everyday essentials, such as an IPTV subscription in Dubai.