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Jaziri rues lack of match practice

Malek Jaziri’s day out with budding stars from Tennis Emirates. — Supplied photo

The Tunisian wildcard, 29, hadn’t played any professional tennis since falling to a straight-sets defeat to Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen in the round of 16 at an indoor Challenger event in Geneva back in October.

Malek visits Tennis Emirates Clinic Tennis Emirates - Head Clinic participants were in for a treat Tuesday morning when No. 1 Arab player Malek Jaziri visited and gave some tennis tips and encouragement to the young local talent. Fresh from Monday night’s exciting match when the Tunisian wild card stretched defending champion Roger Federer to three sets, Jaziri took the children through their paces. Jaziri said he welcomed the opportunity to play in Dubai and was happy to have the opportunity to interact with the children at this week’s Clinic which is run as part of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships ATP Tournament.

A left-knee injury had kept Jaziri out of the sport for four months until Monday evening’s meeting on Centre Court with a far more esteemed Swiss in Federer. The plucky world number 128 looked on the verge of a shock upset when he took the first set 7-5, but that breakthrough merely served to fire up a fretful and frustrated Federer, who duly reeled off 12 of the next 14 games.

“It was my first match after a few months, so I was not ready physically,” Jaziri conceded. “I don’t have a lot of matches in my legs and you do need some rhythm to play in a match like this.

“I’m not 100 per cent fit and I’m maybe only 40 or 50 per cent ready. I knew that beforehand and tried to make the points shorter.

“I gave everything and did my very best, but he has more experience than me in these situations, so that made the difference. He played very well on the important points, so congratulations to Roger and good luck to him..”

alex@khaleejtimes.com