Dubai: Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum, President, Tennis Emirates (TE), has backed the country’s young tennis players to ride on their Davis Cup experience and scale new heights in the sport in the near future.
Led by the experienced Omar Behroozian and Mahmoud Nader Al Beloushi, the UAE kept a clean slate with convincing 3-0 wins against Myanmar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to earn a fresh promotion into Group III during last week’s Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV Davis Cup in Amman.
On Monday, Shaikh Hasher felicitated the members of the squad for helping the UAE take one more step in the Asia/Oceania Davis Cup.
“We cannot allow all this hard work to go in vain. These players have worked hard to take the UAE back into Group III and we need to assist all of them keep their level and continue improving in the future,” Shaikh Hasher told Gulf News at his residence.
“We are proud of this achievement as it has come through a very young squad of players. Of course we had the experience of Omar [Behroozian] and Mahmoud [Nader], but what ultimately made a huge difference were the performances of young players like Abdul Rahman [Al Janahi], Fahad [Al Janahi] and Faris [Al Janahi]. These are the youngsters who are the future of the country and we can expect great things from them,” he noted.
“Getting a promotion means we are moving in the right direction and we are progressing. I am sure this Davis Cup promotion will lead to us into producing some more good players in the UAE, and hopefully we will see one of our boys playing in the grand slams and other big tournaments. Of course this will not happen any time soon, but this performance is the first step in that direction,” Shaikh Hasher added.
Tennis Emirates has already planned a programme that will see members of the Davis Cup squad travelling overseas for a least a couple of training camps in Europe before their campaign in the 2017 Asia/Oceania Group III Davis Cup.
Iran and Hong Kong earned qualification to Group II, while the UAE and Jordan will move into Group III along with Syria, Lebanon, Singapore, Pacific Oceania, Turkmenistan, Cambodia and Qatar.
“By no means Group III is going to be easy next year. So we need to plan accordingly and ensure that we continue on this path. Perhaps, we need to support our players more and that is the only way we can look forward to an even better performance from our players,” Shaikh Hasher said.
The president of TE had recently announced the construction of a specialised centre that would act as the tennis headquarters in the UAE.
“There is no doubt that we are going to build a centre and the Government is right behind us to get this done. We have all the support and very soon we will inform the media of the details on this project,” Shaikh Hasher assured.
“Presently, we are still looking for the land. We have short-listed a few locations and we have a special panel of experts who are looking at these right now. At the same time we are in discussion with the Government and everything will be revealed when the time is right,” he added.
