ABU DHABI // Andy Murray has saluted the Mubadala World Tennis Championship for giving the country’s budding young talents a chance to practise with the sport’s top stars, an opportunity that the two-time grand slam champion himself did not get growing up in Scotland.
During the past few days, the UAE’s top talents and interested children have been practising with or receiving tennis lessons from top stars such as Murray, world No1 Novak Djokovic, 14-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal, reigning Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka, No 14 Feliciano Lopez and Nicolas Almagro.
Two Emirati Davis Cup players, 20-year-old Abdulrahman Al Janahi and Mahmoud Nader, even got an opportunity to share the court with Lopez and Almagro yesterday in a doubles match. Al Janahi partnered Lopez, while Mahmoud was on the other side of the net with Almagro, while Australian great Pat Cash served as the chair umpire.
“It’s a nice thing to be able to do,” said Murray, who has been practising with promising 16-year-old Karim Najia.
“Until the age of 15, I was training at home in Scotland. There wasn’t anyone to practise with. When I went over to Barcelona, I practised with Carlos Moya a couple of times. I also practised with Alex Corretja a few times – he is one of my favourite players to watch.”
Djokovic also applauded the organisers for their efforts to promote the game, and he urged the country’s tennis officials to build on this and create a tradition for the sport.
“People working here should use the fact that you have the top players coming here and try to get the kids onto the tennis courts, get them to see how the top players play and learn,” the Serb said. “You cannot just do it playing a few weeks a year. Let’s say, a tradition needs to be established.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE