By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: Results of the Preliminaries in Arab Master Tennis Tournament were as follows: Rabei Sleem (from Syria) defeated Abdallah Al-Barwani (from Oman) 6-3/6-2. Mohamed Said (from Mauritania) defeated Zakaria Aweis from Somalia 6-0/6-0. Sulaiman Al-Qasem (from Saudi Arabia) defeated Oman's Muneer Alrawahi 6-3/6-4. Hassan Ibrahim (from Lebanon) defeated Libya's Ahmad Mouhan. In the final match, Jordan's Seif Adas defeated Somalia's Mahdi Ahmad.

Meanwhile the Arab Tennis Federation Board of Director held its ninth meeting that was chaired by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Abdallah Al-Sabah. The board approved holding the second Arab Masters in Kuwait in 2022, and a similar tournament will be organized for women. It also agreed to establish a data base for all Arab member states that will include the number of tournaments, players, and clubs. There will also be a permanent committee for the pioneers in the Arab Federation - and a tournament approved for them to be held in Jordan in the first quarter of 2022.

Deputy Chairwoman of ATF Board Dr Salma Mouelhi expressed her pleasure at the resumption of Arab Tennis activities at Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdallah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah International Tennis Complex, which she considered an architectural art work. Dr Mouelhi lauded the efforts of the ATF Chairman Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber in developing and improving the technical level of Arab players. She said "even though the coronavirus affected all sports in general, we are seeing a triumphant return of Arab tennis and we hope to see good competitive matches and promising talents".

On his part, Arab Tennis player Malek Jaziri (from Tunis) held an open discussion meeting during which he spoke about his carrier in tennis and how he became attached to the game. He said he picked a racket when he was two years old. He said he faced various difficulties along the way - in addition to injuries that kept him away from the game for two years. Jaziri went to three Olympic games, and played with top players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.