Tennis Emirates, the governing body of the sport in the UAE, are working hard – with the help of  Dubai Duty Free – to develop the game in the country but secretary general Sara Baker admits that finding Arabic-speaking female coaches has been a real challenge.

With the 16th edition of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships set to commence tomorrow, the absence of local talent in the draw has become an obvious yet regrettable reality but Baker insists Emirati females will soon spring up in the big leagues.

“We work very much together with Dubai Duty Free. It’s been 16 years since the launch of this women’s tournament. I don’t think it should take us, as a federation, 16 years to bring up a top player in the UAE,” Baker told Sport360.

“We’ve already started very young now. We have three young girls that are in the federation, that we’re working very hard with. We’re starting with youth development – eventually we will have three more, of a younger age, and it’ll go up so we will not have any gaps.

“We also have gaps with the boys, it’s not only with the girls, so that’s what we want to build upon.”
There is only one Emirati player that appears on the list of ATP rankings – world No1610 Omar Behroozian – while no female players are ranked in the WTA.

“Our only problem right now is finding female trainers that speak Arabic.

“There are lots of English-speaking coaches but when it comes to locals, if we were to go to public schools, you’ll have to have someone who speaks the Arabic language in order to do that.

“So what we’re doing, with the support of the Dubai Duty Free who give a lot of financial support for development, is we train some PE teachers that have the passion for tennis, in order to start with young girls and then once we pick the ones that have potential then we bring a proper coach and move forward.

“So we’re supporting Dubai Duty Free and they’re supporting us.”

The lack of a national tennis centre to provide a home for all local players to train and develop has also been a hindrance to the progress of the sport in the UAE.

Asked if a new centre is on the horizon, Baker said: “I’m very much pushing for it. Hopefully in 2016 you’ll hear that something is happening.”