Abu Dhabi: As a hardcore serve-and-volleyer in his heyday, it is understandable why former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash finds the current crop of tennis players somewhat boring considering most of them like to grind it out from the baseline.
“I think people are a little concerned about the lack of variety in tennis and hope there will be changes made to make tennis more attacking. But I don’t think it will come back 100 per cent like it was in our days,” Cash told XPRESS.
The 48-year-old is in Abu Dhabi as ambassador of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship where he launched the tournament’s community programmes with a tennis clinic for 400 school children from 20 local schools and their physical education teachers at the Zayed Sports City.
The world’s top three ranked players Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will be joined by World No 4 David Ferrer, No 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No 9 Stanislas Wawrinka when the three-day tournament is held from December 26-28.
While praising the line-up, Cash said that next season’s Grand Slams will be dominated by the players who will be playing in Abu Dhabi. “The season is going to be tough. Outside the top four there are players like Berdych (Tomas), Tsonga, Del Potro (Juan Martin) who are dangerous players. Even Federer (Roger) has a good chance but for the next year most of the Grand Slams will be won by the players who are announced here today. The next few years it will be the same players who have already been there,” he said.
Talking about encouraging youngsters to take up the sport, the 1987 Wimbledon champion said: “Encouraging youngsters to take part in tennis is something that I’m passionate about. So having the chance to do that in a country where tennis is still developing is something I hope I can really add value as ambassador.”
The Mubadala Tennis in Schools programme returns this year, delivering equipment and coaching sessions to 20 local schools across Abu Dhabi. At the end of the programme, 20 children will be invited to display their newly acquired talents on centre court during the Championship.
The Mubadala Community Cup will see tennis fans of all ages compete to win a tennis clinic with a star player. This year will see the Mubadala Community Cup’s first inter-Emirate play-off when winners from Abu Dhabi and Dubai compete against each other.
Amina Taher, Head of Social Development and Sponsorship at Mubadala said: “While we look forward to three days of exciting competition, we’re equally excited to see how this event can help develop talent locally. Mubadala’s goal remains to encourage Emirati youth to be fit and active.”
The UAE’s top tennis player Omar Behroozian will also be part of the schools programme.
“Tennis has given so much to me. Now it’s time for me to give something to the sport I have loved and played for so long. I would be happy if I could help and contribute in nurturing the next generation tennis stars from this country,” he said.
