Egyptian entrant Hajar Abdelkader took over sports social media late last week when a video surfaced of her wild 37-minute match at an ITF W35 event.
Before you read this blog entry, watch the following clip from a women’s ITF event in Nairobi. The tournament, a W35 (thus named because the winner earns 35 ranking points), offers $25,000 in prize money.
If the above video provoked a reaction of disbelief and you just said to yourself, “I do not believe that young woman has ever played tennis before”, that’d be entirely understandable. Expected even. I won’t belabor the point too much, as I don’t want to be unkind. I doubt Hajar Abdelkader, who is 21 years old from Egypt, expected to get any kind of attention. The truth is that these events rarely ping on anyone’s radar since they’re feeder programs for the Challenger/ITF and main WTA Tour.
With that being said, it would be remiss to not state the obvious. Ms. Abdelkader doesn’t know how to execute a service toss, hold her racket properly, or hit any groundstrokes. I’m also not convinced that she has a full grasp of the playing rules.
And listen. Everyone has to start somewhere. I am in no way mocking a beginner doing beginner things…the problem is that an official WTA feeder event isn’t usually the “somewhere.” If you’re anything like me, the next question you’re asking yourself is how in the world did this happen?
The surface answer is that Abdelkader got in with a late wild card and neither tournament organizers nor the ITF were familiar with her. Ultimately, German opponent Lorena Schaedel won the match in 37 minutes, dropping just three points (two of which were double-faults from Schaedel).
The complicated answer is it exposes a weakness in the wild-card process. There was clearly no vetting and no minimum standard by which a player can be deemed eligible. Not only was a spot unavailable for another qualified player, but it also makes a bit of a mockery of the WTA feeder tours.
While most events on the Challenger and ITF Tours get minimal publicity, they are essential to the health of the WTA. It’s where up-and-coming players build up points and rankings. There are a few notable exceptions to the traditional path — Venus and Serena Williams never had to slog their way through juniors or the lower level tours…but Venus and Serena were once-in-a-lifetime talents and by the time they were granted wild cards they were already famous.
Tennis officials in Egypt claim they have no idea who Abdelkader is. Walid Sami, the Secretary General of Arab and Egyptian Tennis, flat out said, “She has never played tennis before, and this is clear from the level she showed.” It was, in short, an embarrassment.
I am all for the development of tennis in Africa. The emergence of Ons Jabeur from Tunisia was fantastic for the WTA and African tennis. But nobody wins when something like this happens. It doesn’t help the ITF tour, it doesn’t help Egyptian OR Kenyan tennis, and it doesn’t help the tournament.
So how does the ITF ensure this doesn’t happen again? Wild cards have long been awarded at the discretion of the tournament, but maybe it’s time to ensure that some base qualification is met for an athlete to even be eligible to apply for a wild card. And how about some basic vetting? The tournament in Nairobi basically threw their hands in the air and said, “Well she SAID she had playing experience.” Okay. Well, obviously not.
We need to do better.
legendary performance
The first time I saw it, I thought it was a practical joke.
I can play better and that’s saying something
Gosh that was terrible 😱