Dubbed the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship's biggest fan, Solange Pineiro cried with joy as she received her well-earned tickets to see her hero Roger Federer on court.
Gulf News, tabloid! made all her wishes come true when kind bosses at Barclays offered her tickets for the final three days after reading about her plight on the cover in Wednesday's edition of The Daily Deuce.
A woman on a mission, Pineiro proved she was willing to go to extreme lengths to get tickets by standing, sandwich board-clad, outside the stadium in Garhoud from 9am until midnight.
But officials at Barclays, the new title sponsor for the two-week-long event, said they wanted to spare her feet and give her tickets for the days she feared she would miss.
A huge Federer fan, she drove to the box office the day the tickets went on sale but was just minutes too late.
Originally from Brazil, Pineiro is married to Manoel, a pilot for Emirates, and has two sons, Pedro, 12, who lives here in Dubai, and Edward, 31, who is in Brazil.
The housewife and mother says she has watched many of the stars around the world and has played tennis herself since she was 5-years-old.
'Best day of my life'
With tears in her eyes, she said: "This is the best day of my life."
Rana Zeeshan Saleem, head of cards and retail assets for the UAE and GCC, said: "At Barclay's we are about winning together. We saw a passion in Solange which symbolises our passion to make dreams come true and decided it was appropriate to recognise that.
"We serve, you receive — that is our moto and that is what we deliver. We hope she has a lovely time."
Rana also surprised Pineiro further by giving her a 2008 championship trophy and an upgrade for Thursday's matches to the VIP stand.
