Former UAE national tennis champion calls for more facilities to encourage the game at a grassroots level. See more at http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00Both my mother and my father are athletic.
00:16My father was an ex-soccer player, probably one of the best in his time, that's what
00:21he says.
00:22But that's what a lot of people around him say as well.
00:23He became a championship tennis player and he became perhaps more passionate about tennis
00:28than anything else and got me into the sport at a very young age.
00:33I always tell him, I wish you got me into it younger.
00:36I started around 10.
00:37Had I started at 5, I might have been a better tennis player.
00:41But not only do I play sports, but the rest of my family plays various sports.
00:46But they primarily got into horses and horse jumping and dressage, both my two sisters
00:52and my younger brother.
00:54I fell in love with both tennis and soccer.
00:58And actually, probably if you ask my father, I gravitated towards soccer more than tennis
01:02to his frustration.
01:04But I was very fortunate, I was probably a more talented tennis player than a soccer
01:08player.
01:09I should have focused more on tennis than I did on soccer.
01:11But nonetheless, I played at a very young age, relatively.
01:15I said you should probably play at 5, I played at 10.
01:18None of the kids were even playing at that time.
01:21When I played tournament tennis, when I played the UAE Nationals, I played against adults.
01:25I was the only junior, virtually only junior.
01:28And so I remember things like being able to bounce the ball on your racket and keep it
01:33bouncing for a long time.
01:34Just losing count of how many times you were bouncing it.
01:37Those were the early years.
01:38And then, obviously later, is learning how to win in tennis.
01:41Because I went through a whole period of frustration because all I was doing was trying to hit
01:45winners and hit a great shot.
01:49But then you start to learn that winning at tennis, you really actually have to modify
01:54your game.
01:55It's really about getting your opponent to hit that one extra shot.
02:02Not necessarily passing him when he comes to the net, but getting him to volley.
02:07Picking your moments when you want to come to the net.
02:09Because I used to charge the net a lot, all the time.
02:13It makes much more sense to pick your moment when you come into the net.
02:19I have great memories of winning.
02:22I have memories of winning the UAE National Tournament.
02:25I have memories of winning with my father the doubles tournament.
02:29I probably have stronger memories of that because he actually got injured in that finals.
02:36He actually got a calf cramp and he said, I can't go on, we're going to have to give
02:40up.
02:41He said, there's no giving up because we've come this far, even if you have to stand in
02:48one part of the court and I play against him by myself, we've got to endure and attempt
02:59to win this.
03:01We young Emiratis probably are not attracted to tennis as much as they are probably attracted
03:06to soccer, even golf right now.
03:09There's a huge investment into soccer and there's equally over the last 10 years a huge
03:13investment into golf, especially into golf courses.
03:18And you don't have that corresponding investment into tennis and tennis sports and that's an
03:22unfortunate thing.
03:23If there were, you'd probably see more young Emiratis get into tennis.
03:27I shoulder some of the responsibility, being a past champion, being a role model, I should
03:32have put more effort into developing the sport over the years.
03:36I haven't, I've failed at that, but I think at large the association previously and now
03:42the Federation, the Tennis Federation, has done a fair job of advancing the sport, but
03:48we have so much more to do.
03:50We need to really set higher, more loftier objectives and goals.
03:56I think we should shoot for, for example, an Olympic champion in 10 years.
04:02We need to set some lofty goals and then strive for them and set milestones along
04:08the way and I'd be happy to participate in that.
04:12And there's a lot of people who are very passionate about the game that I think would love to
04:15do that.
04:16Now that's on the Federation side, but you've also got from the city side, I mean the municipality
04:20for example, I'd love to see them build more public tennis courts.
04:25We don't have any public tennis courts, which is a real shame, a real shame.
04:28You've got to pay a pretty penny to come out and play and we were talking about coming
04:33here and playing.
04:34It's a hundred dirhams, okay.
04:35To a few I would say that's not bad, especially if you're going to play every week.
04:40But to most people I think that's pricey and they need to be afforded public courts so
04:47that they can rear their children in a game like tennis from a very young age.