Bahrain’s Ali Dawani entered the second round of the 7th Bahrain ITF Junior Championship being held at Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair.
The 14-year-old Ali outlasted his opponent Bader Al Asous from Saudi Arabia 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.
“It was a tough game and Bader gave a good fight in the first set. However I went into the second set with more concentration and managed to stay consistent to win the game,” said Ali who looks up to British tennis player Andy Murray as his idol.
Ali also expressed pride in being able to represent the kingdom in the second round. “It feel’s great, I had everyone behind me to support and I didn’t want to let anyone down. The tournament is hosted once a year in Bahrain and I knew I had to put in a lot of effort to try and make everyone proud,” said the Bahrain British School student.
Ali is the only Bahraini boy to qualify after the other seven participants crashed out.
Top-seeded 16 year-old Ammar Al Hogabni from the US, who holds a world ranking of 375, managed a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Bahrain’s 16-year-old Hamad Abdulaal.
Hamad expressed his disappointment at the loss and highlighted the lack of experience as a factor.
“I tried my best and I played well but Ammar is a higher ranked player and has lot of experience under his belt,” said Hamad.
“A lot of the players here have much more experience than us and the only way we can improve is by travelling around and facing opponents from different places,” he added.
18 year-old Omar Qaed of Bahrain crashed to a 6-1, 6-1 defeat against second-seeded Egyptian Mohamed Abdel-aziz who is ranked 415 in the world.
Omar, who had stopped playing tennis two years ago, blamed his loss on lack of play time.
“I haven’t played tennis in over two years and when I heard about this tournament I decided to participate. I had only two weeks to practise, so my opponent was better in fitness and form,” Omar said.
Bahrain’s Youssef Ashraf also fell victim to a higher ranked opponent – fourth seeded 17-year-old Christian Linge from Norway whose world ranking is 648.
“I did my best but I was facing an opponent with greater experience. Regardless of the score, I tried not to give him an easy game,” said the 15 year-old Bahraini who looks up to Australian Nick Kyrgios as his tennis idol.
Bahrain’s Yousif Dhaif however was keen to point out that he fell to defeat because of his in-game tactics.
Yousif, 14, who studies at St Christopher’s School, faced third-seeded Carlos Kelaidis from Switzerland.
“I was very defensive during the game and that is what gave him a chance to win. He is a higher ranked player than me and I really think it could have changed the score if I had attacked him more because I had nothing to lose,” said Yousif who started playing tennis at the age of nine.
The last Bahraini participant in boys singles was Elyas Abdulnabi who fell to defeat against Egypt’s Seif Shawky 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.
Elyas had claimed to have a muscle strain during the game which made him lose his advantage over his opponent and cruise out of the tournament.
Bahrain’s Ridah Nayeemullah also fell to defeat against Ayca Erturk of Turkey 6-0, 6-0, in the girls’ singles. Her compatriot Manni Zhang was knocked out by Tzarina Tuen-Mathews from the UK 6-1, 6-0.
Five Bahraini boys and two girls will take part in the doubles tournament.
Bahrain’s Hamad Abdulaal and Elyas Abulnabi will team up to face Rajeh Al Rajeh and Sare Al Matar from Saudi Arabia while Bahrian’s Ali Dawani and Fares Al Janahi from the UAE will face Egyptian duo Karim Abdel Raouf and Yousif Khamis.
Bahrain’s Youssef Ashraf will team up with India’s Rahul Jaideep to face Abdulla Al Barwani from Oman and Abdulaziz Al Bayouk from Saudi Arabia.
Husain Dawani will be the last Bahraini player to participate in the boys’ doubles as he teams up with Musaeed Al Azzam from Saudi Arabia to challenge Swiss Carlos Kelaidis and Eleftherios Neos from Cyprus.
Bahrain’s Ridah Nayeemullah and Manni Zhang will participate in the girl’s doubles championship.
Ridah will pair up with Kalpaka Pradip from India to face Bdour Kandil from Egypt and Tzaina Tuen-Mathews from UK whereas Manni will team up with Indian Nida Shahid Kamal to face Annika Kannan from India and Rafaella Saa from Ecuador.