There’s a Junior ITF tennis tournament taking place at the Dubai Aviation Club this week and I went down there hoping to catch a glimpse of some UAE youngsters harbouring big tennis dreams.
Those hopes started to diminish when I found that only one Emirati was present in the Boys’ Singles draw and one in the Girls’. They are both 17, received wildcards into the main draws, shared the same last name – Al Janahi – and it turns out they are cousins.
Unfortunately, Fatma and Abdulrahman Al Janahi both lost in the first round but I did get a chance to chat with Abdulrahman, who has a little over a year left to play on the junior circuit before having to decide to either go pro or abandon the sport.
And while he intends to continue in tennis, he made it very clear that his priorities lie in his studies and that he has a feeling that his tennis will take a major hit when he goes to university next year (he wants to study engineering).
The Janahis are an all-round tennis family. Abdulrahman’s older brother, Mohammed, played tennis, his younger brother Fares just won the silver in the ITF West Asia 13&Under Development Championship and his cousins Hamad, Fatma and Fahad all play too.
So while the tennis gene clearly runs in the family, Abdulrahman raised an interesting issue when he said his education will overshadow his tennis ambition and there are countless other hopefuls out there in the UAE who share the same views that have been instilled in them by their parents.
With the Emirati government pumping in huge amounts of money in the sports industry, and many community initiatives being directed towards finding the next big Emirati sports star, it seems work needs to be done to change the perception of what it means to be a professional athlete and why it can be a valid career choice.
It seems that developing academies where athletes can train and receive proper education at the same time is key right now, so that parents don’t feel that their children are ignoring their studies for sport.
The Dubai Sports Council have said that they are looking to create such academies but in the meantime, parents need to be educated about sport so that they can allow their children to dedicate themselves to training and start dreaming big.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships has been around for two decades but it’s safe to say it is not inspiring more Emiratis to take up tennis.
Tennis Emirates have just launched a new portal that is regularly updated with results and several big tennis academies in the country are organising more junior tournaments for UAE residents.
But the ratio of expats to locals competing in such tournaments still indicates that when it comes to tennis, UAE youngsters, as well as their parents, still need a big push in order to embrace the sport.
