From snow to sand, dogs to Dubai. It’s been a manic few days covering a bit of the men’s tennis in San Jose to reporting a couple of stories in anticipation of the Iditarod to hopping on a plane for a nearly 24-hour journey from San Francisco to the United Arab Emirates.

In my first two days here, I haven’t had much of a chance to see Dubai’s Bladerunner-esque cityscape – what Vanity Fair called a “skyline on crack.” If nothing else, it’s construction on steroids as the city has made the crane its unofficial national bird. A building is going up on every block.

I am here for a multitude of purposes, but primarily to report on the explosive growth of big-time sporting events in the region and to cover some of the back-to-back ATP and WTA events the next two weeks. These countries are using their overflowing coffers to entice stars, build facilities and promote and market themselves in bold fashion. Besides the world’s richest horse race (Dubai), Formula One racing (Bahrain) and major tennis and golf events scattered throughout the region, Qatar is bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

At the Barclay’s Dubai Tennis Championships today, the four top seeds – Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic – were trotted out into an outside garden for the tour’s “all-access hour.” (For the record, it rarely lasts an hour, unless you count the time journalists wait for the players to show up, and with 8-10 reporters crammed around a table you’re lucky to get in more than a question or two). But it does offer some limited access in a non-press conference atmosphere, which can be useful.

Four-time winner Henin, coming off her indoor victory in Antwerp, seemed relaxed and focused as she described her ongoing reunification with her family. The family, estranged from Henin for seven years before reconciling in 2007, attended the tournament in Belgium. Henin said she spent a lot of time with them while recovering from the ongoing right-knee problems she’s had since Australia. She said she even took a cortisone shot, the second in three years to ease the pain. The 25-year-old said she is now pain-free.

Interstingly, she also explained that while the tournament offers a top player like herself the chance to stay at the gaudy, seven-star Burj Al Arab, she prefers to stay closer to the tournament. "They give me the opportunity, but I want to be close and stay in the same routine,” said Henin,who called herself a “simple” and “normal” person. “I hate to be in the car one and a half hours before the match or after the match,” she added. “I think it’s a disaster. You don’t have to lose time doing this kind of stuff.”

With the violence and demonstrations in Serbia following Kosovo’s recent declaration of independence, I asked the two Serbs what it was like to see more trouble in their homeland. Unlike Novak Djokovic, who released a video message in support of Serbia, the women have been reticent.

“It is very hard to watch, almost every day breaking news and seeing the people go on the street,” said Ivanovic. “It’s very hard for me to comment on it or say anything. It’s just very, very sensitive at the moment.” She said her brother and father are in Belgrade but in “a different side of the city” than where most of the protests have taken place. “It’s very sad for me to see people reacting this way. It’s a tough decision. It’s a political one. I wish people would realize this and maybe not go that far,” she added.

Jankovic, whose mother is Serbian and father is from Montenegro, said she prefers to isolate herself from politics. “I don’t like to get involved in politics,” she said. “I was just brought up in that way. In my family, we never talk about politics. I’m an athlete and I like to talk about other things. So I don’t like to get involved in that. Athletes are the best ambassadors for their country. We are trying to do our best to represent our country in the best possible light."

While she said it was “not pleasant to watch,” she refused to comment further for fear of being misunderstood. “Whatever I will say about that, people may read it in a different context so I don’t want to get involved, especially since I am not an expert in that,” she said, adding with a hearty laugh that “Whatever I say doesn’t mean much."  As for Djokovic’s video, the Bollettieri-trained Belgrade native said it wasn’t her business to opine. “I really don’t want to discuss somebody else’s acts,” she said.

All three also marveled about the pace of change and development in Dubai. The ever garrulous and at times overly honest Jankovic got a loud chuckly when she came to the table and complained of a stomach ache. Eager journalists started to probe before Jankovic butted in a question-killing explanation. “Girl’s problems, that’s all," she said. "You don’t really want to know.” We didn't. End of inquiry.

FYI, I’ll be doing some guest blogging at Peter Bodo’s Tennis World section on tennis.com, so be sure to check that out every couple of days over the next week or so. I’ll leave another reminder about that in the days to follow.