Dubai: The President of Tennis Emirates has lashed out at UAE clubs for systematically leading to the near demise of tennis in the country.
With not many Emirati youngsters playing the sport, most of the clubs in the UAE have either discontinued or cut down on budgets for tennis at club-level. Al Nasr and Al Wasl, in particular, have curtailed on their grassroots programmes.
“What can we do when our clubs in the UAE have stopped supporting tennis in the country? There was a time when there were a few select clubs who had grassroots development programmes to encourage youngsters in tennis. Today, we hardly have any clubs involved,” Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum, President, Tennis Emirates (TE), told Gulf News.
“Despite these odds, we have managed to restart a development programme that will bring in and keep youngsters in tennis over a period of time. We are here to see the sport develop and grow, but we can’t do everything alone. We need support from all like-minded partners,” he added.
Late on Monday, Shaikh Hasher honoured the top-placed clubs and academies in the relaunched UAE Tennis League and Rankings System, where the Racquet Academy won the men’s title, while the Future Pro Academy and Clark Francis Tennis Academy walked away with the under-16 and under-14 crowns, respectively.
Despite the lack of support, Shaikh Hasher was confident tennis would head in the right direction following the measures initiated towards its development.
The governing body for tennis in the UAE has taken several measures including a closer engagement with private tennis academies and institutions to bolster the foundations of the sport. The exercise that has been undertaken in close collaboration with the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW) will ensure closer ties with academies and institutions with the ultimate winner being the sport and the players.
As per a survey carried out, there are an estimated 120 tennis academies and institutions all over the UAE. The UAE TF has managed to register and affiliate a mere 46 of these bodies so far. In addition, tennis players have access to a little over 400 tennis courts.
“In the UAE, tennis is not suffering due to a lack of facilities. What we need is for all like-minded people to come to a common platform and work towards developing the sport,” Shaikh Hasher said.
“We have other plans laid out for the future. We may have missed the way for a short period, but now we are back on track. We have plans to have a separate league for Abu Dhabi along with an exclusive competition for women,” he said.
