Revealed: The truth about how an Egyptian tennis player’s professional debut turned into the ‘worst in sports history’ – as hunt for mystery woman continues
- Do you know who this is? Email lettice.bromovsky@dailymail.co.uk
The Egyptian tennis player, who had a disastrous first start to his professional career and has been called the worst in the history of the sport, is now suspected of cheating his way into the tournament.
Hajar Abdelkader, 21, disappeared after footage of her remarkable 6-0 6-0 defeat of 24-year-old Lorena Schaedel in an International Tennis Federation (ITF) match in Nairobi went viral last week.
The 37-minute match, played on January 6, was the subject of widespread ridicule after Ms. Abdelkader was unable to perform even basic tennis techniques.
At one point, while his German opponent, ranked 1139th in the world, was waiting at the other end of the court, he threw the ball behind him during the shot.
Ms. Schaedel even had to tell Ms. Abdelkader where to stand on the court to serve.
The Egyptian wild card committed 20 double faults during the match and hit only eight percent of her serves.
Whereas Ms. Schaedel only lost three points in the entire competition when she made two double faults and one unforced error.
Following the backlash, Tennis Kenya admitted that Ms Abdelkader should never have been allowed to compete and clarified that she was only given a place after a Kenyan professional withdrew at the last minute.
One of the tournament organizers told The Telegraph that Ms Abdelkader was suspected of “lying” about her experience, with officials trying to establish how she knew what information she had to provide to secure entry.
Hajar Abdelkader cut an unlikely figure as she made her professional debut at an ITF event in Nairobi on Wednesday.
Fans online suggested the 21-year-old’s performance might have been one of the worst ever
The source said: ‘He gave false information about his rankings and stats. ‘We can’t find him and we don’t know where he went.’
A profile on the ITF website claims Ms Abdelkader, a right-handed Egyptian national, has been playing football since she was 14. However, footage from the match shows that he competed on an entertainment level.
The ITF World Tennis Tour is the lowest of the three tiers of competitive tours for professional players, ranking behind the WTA and ATP tours and the Challenger Tours at the top of the rankings.
However, a number of WTA players will continue to compete in ITF events if they return from injury, are keen to improve their rankings or want to claim the top prize with seven players ranked in the top 500 of the world rankings competing in Nairobi.
Offering the second-lowest amount of prize money, W35 events still come with sizeable financial rewards, with £22,000 ($25,000) for the tournament winner and ranking points.
Organizers of the event said Ms. Abdelkader emailed officials multiple times starting on December 26, begging to be given the opportunity to play.
Every request was denied until a last-minute withdrawal opened a gap and he was given a wild card.
Tennis Kenya’s general secretary Nancy Nduku later admitted the mistake, saying: ‘Tennis Kenya accepts that this wild card should not have been awarded.
‘The Federation has taken this experience into account and will ensure such a rare event never happens again.’
In a separate statement, Tennis Kenya said Ms Abdelkader was given the wild card because she ‘indicated that she had an appropriate level of competitive playing experience’.
The Egyptian Tennis Federation confirmed that Ms. Abdelkader is an Egyptian citizen living in Kenya and does not compete in her home country.
