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3 points and 20 double faults.. An Egyptian player turns into a shock in the world of tennis (video)

The participation of Egyptian player Hager Abdel Qader in the Nairobi International Tennis Championship imposed itself as a controversial story on the global media scene, after her first professional steps turned into one of the most surprising matches in the history of the game, according to the descriptions of observers and critics.

The British newspaper Daily Mail covered the incident in an extensive report, and went so far as to describe Hajar as one of the weakest players who appeared in approved tournaments, questioning how she was allowed to reach a professional competition that included players with an advanced world ranking, in tournaments. ITF Which, despite its lower classification, is a real gateway to serious competition and the gradual return of professional female players.

The newspaper explained that the 21-year-old Egyptian player participated in a tournament W35 The value of her prizes reached 22 thousand pounds sterling, via a wildcard, before she suffered a severe loss to German Lorena Scheidel, ranked 1026th in the world, with a score of two sets to zero, 6-0 and 6-0, in a match that did not exceed 37 minutes.

The numbers that accompanied the match reflected the size of the technical difference, as Hajar only managed to score three points throughout the match, most of which came as a result of direct errors from her opponent, while she was completely unable to gain any point from her first serve, which recorded a low success rate of 8.3 percent, in addition to committing 20 double faults, and appearing in more than one shot without clarity in her positioning during the serve.

The report added that the way the player handled the racket and the difficulty in receiving the serve raised wide question marks about her competitive readiness, even though her official data with the International Tennis Federation indicates that she has been playing the game since the age of 14, but the Nairobi match represented her first appearance at the level of professional tournaments.

The controversy did not stop at the limits of performance on the court, but rather extended to the backgrounds of her obtaining the invitation card, especially in light of the great emphasis imposed by the integrity and anti-corruption regulations in tennis, which prevent any material or illegal exploitation of the free card system, and limit their granting to purely regulatory decisions from the authority supervising the tournament.

According to the report, the Egyptian player benefited from the withdrawal of one of the Kenyan players shortly before the start of the tournament, which prompted the Kenya Tennis Association to grant the vacant seat urgently, without revealing details or clear technical criteria behind her selection, which contributed to escalating questions about the mechanisms for granting invitation cards in such tournaments.

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