UAE tennis targets Davis Cup success ahead of Expo 2020

Gulf News

Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/2OTsWMN  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  The UAE tennis squad has been training seriously for their upcoming Asia/Oceania Group IV competition to be held in Amman in the week of September 9.   #UAE #tennis #DavisCup

Transcript

00:00We've been playing for the past two months, we've been playing a lot of intense fitness

00:07tennis every day for three hours, which is something we haven't been doing for a while,

00:12but we know if we keep up the level, our level is going to be high.

00:15I feel good about the preparation since it's indoor and it gives us more time to focus

00:20on our fitness and we can play much more than we play outside since the weather is not helping

00:26at all, even though it's good for our fitness to train outside, but for intensity it's better

00:31to play inside since you can play longer points and you can train for two or three hours in

00:37a row.

00:38You don't keep taking breaks.

00:39Well, I think the thoughts every year is to get a good result, first of all, we're in

00:45Group 4 this year so we're going to try to promote, that's the only objective we can

00:49have because we feel like we're more of a Group 3 team usually.

00:54So when we go to Group 4 it's always about trying to promote, we know it's not going

00:58to be easy this year because they changed the system of the Davis Cup, so it's going

01:01to be 15 teams I think, and two teams qualify, so it's going to be tough, a lot of good teams

01:08but I think we have a chance for sure.

01:12Since I'm the youngest one and Amr is the oldest one, then there's my brother, since

01:16Amr is very experienced, he's been playing for 20 years and he's still at the top level

01:22and he can win most of his matches, which is very good, and of course then there's my

01:25brother Hamad who's been playing for a long time as well.

01:28I'm fairly new to the teams, it's my third or fourth time playing for the Davis Cup,

01:33so it's always good to look up to two experienced players.

01:35I feel like it's us as a team, we always know each other, we know each other so well, so

01:41I feel we all have confidence in each other, even though maybe I didn't play for a while

01:45but maybe Amr has confidence in me or my brother Fahad has confidence in me, so I can push

01:50him, he can push me, so I feel it's going to be a good one this year.

01:55Maybe not on the same page because we're in different stages in the preparation, so I

01:59was in England playing a lot of matches, whereas the guys, because of their commitment they

02:05couldn't travel, so they've been more working on their fitness, lacking a bit of matches

02:10which hopefully they're going to play now in the next few weeks, whereas I'm coming

02:14from playing a lot of competition, so different stages but I think overall we're going to

02:20be close to getting, I think September 4 or 5, I think we're all going to be there.

02:26Our expectation is to qualify Group 3, win every single match because we're capable of

02:31it, and no matter who plays we've got to support everyone because it doesn't matter, the most

02:36important thing is UAE wins the match.

02:38Goal is to give my best, like always, and I hope I'm going to do well, because I feel

02:43confident, even though I didn't play for a while, I didn't play a single match since

02:48two years when I was in Sri Lanka, but I feel confident that I'm going to do well.

02:52The goal right now is to go there and not think too much about result, think of performing

02:58well because we know we can all play really well, all three of us are talented, we have

03:03the ability to play at a very high level, so we need to think of just performing well.

03:09Last year we came very close to qualifying, even with Hamad in military and me injured,

03:14so that means that we do have a chance, and I know that other teams, they respect us,

03:19they know we're a threat, but we need to perform, everything has to go well there and hopefully

03:24it will be good.

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