|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS MENFebruary 28, 2012Omar AwadhyDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES S. STAKHOVSKY/O. Awadhy THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Talk about the match. OMAR AWADHY: Yeah, it was tough. Yeah, really tough. I played him twice in a row.  Last year I was‑‑ I'm playing better this year than last year, but with these guys it just depends on the day. In my opinion, he played much better today. Last year maybe he didn't know me so I was not really ‑‑ like his game was off, you know. Today he was more focused and he didn't give me a lot free points today compared to last year. Q. Going forward, where do you go from here? OMAR AWADHY: I mean, we have Davis Cup, you know, which is very important this year. That's our main goal for the season to try to promote. We have a good chance this year, you know, especially after we got the bronze medal in the Arab Games. We're looking forward to this tournament. We have a few futures coming up in Gulf and I'm going to be playing that. But the Davis Cup is the main target this year. It's in April. Q. Can you just talk throughout process of when you found out you're playing in this tournament. When did you find out? OMAR AWADHY: Yeah, it's usually the last week. Like few days before our Federation usually nominates the players from you UAE. So they nominate me usually for the main draw, and our second player, Hamad, for the qualifying. But then obviously the Duty Free are the ones that make the committee, and they decide who are they going to give the wildcards. But usually, like the last few years, you know, since I'm No. 1 UAE they have been giving me the wild card. Q. (Indiscernible.) OMAR AWADHY: To be honest with you, I don't think so, no. I think that first of all it's important to get local person vote obviously, but the tournament here in Dubai is very, very tough. It's a 500 series. It's one of the best tournaments in the world, you know. Unless, you know, you really playing against them you know how tough it is. So I think that the moment one wild card is more than enough, you know. Yeah, yeah. Q. What do you think in the terms of the standard of tennis here and local tennis? OMAR AWADHY: The standard, I mean, I've talked about it a lot before. I think that the standard needs to improve. It needs to improve a lot actually, in quantity and quality. We don't have a lot of players. Obviously if you don't have a lot of the players you don't have a lot of competition going on. So even the players that you have are going to find it hard to improve. Like we haven't had the tournament ‑‑ for example, our season starts in September and we haven't a single tournament yet in UAE, you know. It's tough even for me or for Hamad. You can't just suddenly expect to play a tournament like this and just perform at your best. It's impossible. It's not possible. Q. You must have been asked this often, buts do you really enjoy making your annual appearance at this tournament and then not playing anything else? OMAR AWADHY: Yeah, no, it's not very enjoyable, to be honest with you. I'm always privileged to get a wildcard obviously. I'm honored to be part of this big tournament. I mean, you should ask the committee and not me. But I think the reason they give me the wildcard is because I'm still always giving 200% for my country. So maybe this is the reason. It's kind of like an award. But level‑wise it's very difficult. There were years when I felt like I'm coming into the tournament playing really well, you know. But these guys, you're talking about the best top 100 in the world, you know. So it's a different ballgame, you know. Q. What can you done then? How can the situation improve? OMAR AWADHY: I mean, on paper it's simple. The first thing, you have to start developing players. You know, you can't have ten players on the whole national team. It's impossible. You know, we have this tournament, which is great. It's supposed to be a great motivation, you know, to try to improve tennis, you know. But since we started this tournament in 1993, you know, it's still me. I'm still here, you know, every year, you know. It's not my fault. It's because there aren't any players coming through, you know, which makes life even difficult for me. Because without competition, it's difficult for me to improve my standard, you know. I'm hoping that once I quit tennis, once I stop, I can use my experience to help. Because I'm hoping ‑‑ you know, within the next years we have to have a good player playing such a big tournament. But it's tough. It's very tough. Q. (No microphone.) OMAR AWADHY: No, not 20. I was 10 the first year. But, I mean, since I remember the tournament, you know, nothing has really happened. It's not many players coming through. Q. How many times do you think you've played here? OMAR AWADHY: I think it's my eighth time, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Q. Does it get harder on you? OMAR AWADHY: It gets ‑‑ not really, no, because, you know, at the beginning I used to put a lot of pressure on myself. With time, you realize, you know, what can you do? I can't refuse the wildcard. At the same time also they give me the wild card I'm realistic enough to say, you know, that these guys are much better than me. They're much, much better than me. I don't care if it's 6‑Love, 6‑Love or 6‑4, 7‑5, you know. They're much better, you know. That's a fact. Q. Looking ahead, you have the GCC happening, followed by the futures. What sort of program? Can you set a more realistic program for yourself and the team? OMAR AWADHY: Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, those are the tournaments that realistically speaking we are aiming to do well. Davis Cup is the main priority, you know, at the moment, so we're going to try to work hard the next few weeks, you know. We have to promote this year. It's a big target, you know. We need to promote in order keep the game alive here. We're trying our best. Us as players, we're really trying, you know, to keep UAE among the top countries in the Arab, and, you know, GCC. But it's not easy. It's not easy. Q. How do you motivate people to take up tennis? You said you would like to maybe do stuff after you finish. OMAR AWADHY: Yeah, that's a good question, because it's tough. If I had a kid or I wanted to motivate someone, you know ‑‑ I mean, I don't see what I can tell them. We don't have tournaments; we don't have leagues here; we don't have no clubs. So, you know, if I tell a kid, Yeah, come into tennis, you know. We have the Dubai Open. Yeah, but what about the rest of the season? Dubai Open is great, you know. And even for me, being involved here as a player, it's great. It's a great feeling and everything, but what about the rest of the 11 months, you know? Then what? So unless thing are done here in a good way, you know, the system is changed, it's difficult to motivate players. Q. Do you think it's also we have a unique situation in the sense you have the business part of tennis, the regular recreational part of tennis, and then you have the serious tennis, which is the UAE national team? Is that a factor? OMAR AWADHY: That's a factor obviously, you know. But I think there are some things that are not very difficult to achieve, you know. I mean, instead of improving, you know, trying to improve the standard and everything, um, tournaments have been canceled in the last two years that have been going on since 1970. You know, it's impossible. You know, tournaments here that attract players from outside. So it's good for us to play these tournaments, to play against good players. You know, you remember Julien (phonetic) and these guys who were 200, 300 in the world, that used to be good for me. At least I come to Dubai Open, play with those players. But even those have gone now. You know, so instead of trying to improve the standard and improve the amount of tournaments, improve ‑‑ you know, it's down now. We have nothing. Not even one tournament since the summer, you know. So that's unfortunate. Q. Is the weather a factor? Obviously in the summer ‑‑ tennis is primarily an outdoor sport, and in the UAE for about six months of the year perhaps you can't physically be playing in 40 degree heat. OMAR AWADHY: Yeah, I mean, I think our season, you know, here in UAE starts from September to May, you know. So it's hot in September; it's hot in May. But the other few months the weather is good, you know. So I don't think it's to do with the weather. I think it's just people need to be more organized here. You know, you can't keep everything for the last minute and then say, Oh, we didn't find sponsors, we didn't find ‑‑ you know, you have to be more organized. You have the whole summer to think about your schedule. By October/November and they still don't know the tournaments, they still don't know the team for Davis Cup, they still don't know, you know, which courts are we going to practice. It's just organization. If you're organized, it's not difficult to do this ‑ not in a country like Dubai. Q. Are you consulted with any of those topics? OMAR AWADHY: No, I'm consulted, yeah. They respect me a lot here. I'm consulted. But it's different to be consulted and to take action. I don't have the responsibility right now as player to take action, you know. They ask me and they know my opinion. Nothing different than what I'm saying here. But why they don't it it's, it's really not in my hands. You know, I have no idea. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|