'Surrounded By Fire' - A tennis cycle in the Middle East

From his academy in the tennis powerhouse state of Florida, former ATP 128 and latest Racket Business contributor Tamer El Sawy uses his first column to highlight the realities of life as a junior tennis player trying to make it when coming from a ‘non-traditional’ tennis playing country.

When the Middle East is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind for the majority is war, struggle and money. The further you dig you uncover corruption, dirty politics and clinching to the past. Is that all there is? Did you ever ask yourself why they hold on to the past so much?

Because things are getting worse, so yesterday is always better.

In the middle of all this a child is born, lets call him Samy. Samy loves tennis, his parents love the idea, but are terrified of the cost of training, but they pay it anyway.

On the baseline of a stony clay court with a bunch of small holes, a torn net and two very old balls, Samy is always smiling. Its amazing how Samy is enjoying the game at its poorest form.

Its tough to find good players his age so he is more than happy to jump in with a group of older club players and show his stuff. They are all happy to have someone who makes them feel younger and they always try to support Samy and push him forward

Samy’s parents are worried, tennis expenses are terrifying. The salary of a government worker in the Middle East 5 years ago is LE. 4,000 (US $400), a racquet costs LE 3000, but these days the cost of a racquet is LE 12,000, the monthly salary of 3 government employees. shoes cost LE 5,000 (every 6 weeks), Coaching is a luxury over all that. Then we account for strings, stringing, clothes, tournament entry fees and you got yourself a fortune.

Samy’s Parents struggle but try to make ends meet for his sake....

Five years later, Samy becomes number one in his country. Suddenly, a new institute shows up in his life, the Federation. Samy's father sells his car and finds a second job to finance the journey.

The Federation tries to take control while the parents fight them back, in a nice way of course so they don’t get to be black listed.

Samy and his parents have to change coaches three or four times until they find semi acceptable help.

Samy keeps on getting better and shows God given talents, domestic competition becomes weak and very few, now ITF tournaments are needed. Parents can’t afford it , the Federation keeps making promises, but Samy can’t travel . Parents ask about sponsorship, but who sponsors a kid from the Middle East with a negligible chance of making it.

They try to contact Universities in the US to possibly get a scholarship, but the coaches ask for Samy’s UTR. He has non, No UTR tournaments. Can Samy produce an ITF ranking? No, he cant afford to travel.

Can Samy possibly hang on till he finishes university in the Middle East and then maybe pursue a tennis career? No, he has mandatory army service after college.

Samy quits tennis.

Samy is the success story, believe it or not. There are thousands of kids like Samy that don’t even get the chance to go that far.

The reality is always trying to impose it’s self, no courts available, no equipment, no proper training, no moral support, no financial support, “except from the families” , add up to no chance.

But why are there still thousands of kids playing tennis, trying to live their dreams? Why are their families selling everything to give their kids a chance to play a sport that has a .0001 success rate? Why does life keep going on after no visible success in decades?

The answer is hope. You want to kill a society, kill the hope in their children.

Hope is the only savior for our kids, they have to be able to dream and shoot for the stars. Never wake a kid up from his dream with a dose of reality, because maybe one day, he is the one who will make a new reality better for all of us.

Like Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, “Life always finds a way” .

So the next time you see a world class player from the Middle East, take notice, they have gone threw fire and survived the gauntlet, and I am sure they have a story worth telling.