Dubai: Tunisia and Arab world’s top tennis player Malek Jaziri has vouched to takes the positives from his agonising third-round exit against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open to Dubai next month.
Up 4-0 in the second set tie-breaker, Jaziri – who turned 31 on January 20 – was disturbed by an erroneous call from chair umpire Mohammad Lahyani as he went on to lose in straight sets against the fast-improving home crowd favourite.
Jaziri started off well with a four-set victory over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin and followed it up with a birthday gift with a gruelling win in five sets against Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin. However, a forehand winner was called out and there were further dramatics as the tie-breaker progressed as Jaziri lost focus in a tight second set against Kyrgios.
“If I had won the tie-break it would have been one set all and things could have gone either way. But now is not the time to brood, but just to look at the positives and proceed to the next challenge,” Jaziri told Gulf News during a brief stop-over in Dubai on Monday.
“Dubai has been good to me. At the end of last year, Khalaf Al Habtoor gave me ideal conditions to prepare for the new season and the hard work is showing on court at the moment,” added Jaziri, who is eyeing a strong finish at the Dubai Tennis Championships men’s week starting on February 23.
“I would have preferred playing in Europe before travelling to Dubai as this place is like a second home for me. My training base is here under Essam Jalali and I have a lot of support in Dubai. However, the schedule is such and I need to follow it,” Jaziri said.
The Tunisian created history last year when he reached the quarter-finals at the Dubai tournament. As of January 19, Jaziri is No.75 on the Emirates ATP Rankings with his third-round entry in Melbourne sure to help him move up at least ten places.
Jaziri joins the Moroccan triumvirate of Younus Al Aynaoui, Hicham Arazi and Karim Alami as some of the top tennis players from the Arab world. Al Aynaoui hit World No 14 after reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian and US Opens in 2003, while fellow Moroccan Hicham Arazi reached a career high No 22 after reaching the last eight stages of the French and Australian Opens in 1998 and Karim Alami made it to No 25 in 2000.
“The first priority for me is to find a sponsor to take my tennis to the next level. But I will continue focusing on working hard and move up in the rankings. I hope I can keep this mindset and momentum going and achieve my season goal of breaking into the top-50 before this season ends,” Jaziri said.
