Bahrami backs Middle East role model

Dubai: Mansour Bahrami, one of the greatest tennis players to emerge from the Middle East, hopes Aravane Rezai will inspire other girls from the region to pursue a professional tennis career.

"She [Rezai] may be a great excuse for girls from here to become professional tennis players," Bahrami told Gulf News.

Bahrami will be joined by other legends like Pat Cash, Ilie Nastase and Peter McNamara at the Dubai Tennis Championships in Pro-Ams and Kids' Days as ambassadors for sponsors Barclays .

British great Virginia Wade and fellow British TV presenter Annabel Croft will also feature during the various events lined up for the two-week extravaganza.

Bahrami's love affair with tennis began as a ball boy at a complex in Tehran. But the political situation there forced him to move to France where he thrived.

Born of Iranian parents in St Etienne, where she currently resides, Rezai, has been showing a lot of promise. At 20, she has had a career-high ranking of 40 last season. She is now placed at 53 on the WTA Tour.

Breakthrough

After a breakthrough season in 2006 where she made three quarterfinals, the French girl has been showing further progress in 2008. Rezai was the runner-up at Auckland in January where she beat seventh seed Eleni Daniilidou and third seed Katerina Srebotnik before losing to Lindsay Davenport.

She also reached the third round at this year's Australian Open.

"She can be a great role model for the young girls here who have to seriously look at making tennis a major part of their career," Bahrami said. "I know she plays under the French flag, but she is still an Iranian and aspiring players can take a cue from a girl like Rezai."