Dubai: Former Moroccan tennis star Karim Alami has urged Arab nations to stop giving excuses and work single-mindedly towards establishing a proper tennis order that will witness the rise of players from the region.

Since his retirement from professional tennis in 2002, Alami, who turns 44 this year, has been based in Qatar for the past 13 years. Since then he has been associated with the sport in various capacities including television commentator, analyst and presenter for the Doha-based beIN Sports.

However, one of his biggest associations with tennis is as tournament director for the annual Qatar Exxon Mobil Open that also completed its silver jubilee earlier this year. His positions at various areas in tennis have also given Alami a close view of how the sport is run in the region.

“I doubt any of the countries in the Gulf region can complain of a lack of tennis facilities. We have enough number of courts. What we need to do is pay attention to bringing in the kids into our development programmes and then keeping them interested for a long time,” Alami told Gulf News on the sidelines of the ITF seminar held on Thursday.

“Yes, we need more support, be it financially or with trained specialised personnel. But first we need to think about what we can do by ourselves. We need to think first about our strategy and goals. Obviously if there is support from the ITF or from the ATP or the WTA, then this can be a bonus. However, we cannot just wait for this assistance. The start needs to come from us,” he added.

Alami, who won two career titles in singles — both in 1996 in Atlanta and Palermo to reach a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 25 in February 2000 — further reiterated that Gulf nations already have the infrastructure needed to excel in tennis.

“All associations will have financial needs, but what we forget is that we already have the facilities and the courts. We only need to create more events and have good coaches and have a good system in place to motivate our kids,” Alami observed.

Alami was one of the main workers at the grassroots level in Qatar more than ten years back when coaches and trainers visited schools to tap in to talent. “The good thing is that there is a system put in place. We create the atmosphere and we plant our seed in the schools. It’s a long-term investment and we now need to be patient and learn from the big nations. However, some of the big ones like the US or Australia have been struggling with players. They have trouble getting players even with a lot of money and a lot of coaches and lot of history in tennis. So we need to be patient,” Alami said.

“Tennis is very difficult, but we have to be patient. We have to do the right thing. We need to invest in courts and competitions. And the Government too, through the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth should get involved,” he added.