Dubai: Next month, it will be 17 years since Omar Behroozian first represented the UAE at the Davis Cup. Since then, the 31-year-old has played in 65 ties for his country with a singles win-loss record of 45-19 and a doubles record of 28-14.

Hamad Abbas Al Janahi is 22 and the first time he represented the UAE was in 2006, exactly ten years after Behroozian made his debut. Al Janahi boasts a 15-8 record in the singles and a 9-8 record in the doubles.

With one player possibly past his peak and the other more than eight years his junior, a huge gap occurred in UAE tennis. While there are explanations galore, Tennis Emirates (TE), led by its president Shaikh Hasher Maktoum, Vice-President Abdul Rahman Falaknaz and founding member and current General Secretary Nasser Al Madani, are furiously backing a plan to develop more youngsters who will be able to carry forward the torch from Behroozian and Al Janahi.

“We cannot afford to think back in time,” Falaknaz said.

“We need to see what we can possibly do for the future. This sport is popular and yet we do not have enough players to even constitute a proper squad for the Davis Cup,” he added.

This wish of having young Emirati players coming through the ranks may soon be a reality with national team coach Jorge Martin Munoz of Spain leading the way. After starting his role some three years back, the Spaniard had the rare honour of seeing his team oscillate between Group IV and III in as many years.

After starting in October 2012, Munoz went ahead and did what he knows best – tap into talent at grassroots level. With the full backing of the board of directors, and with the assistance of coach Mohammad Hichem Bramly, Munoz approached two UAE schools, the Al Ittihad Private School and the Dubai International School. “We had to first ascertain the facilities at these schools. We also needed to ensure which school would offer us the best facilities merely because this is a pilot project and we did not want to get things wrong,” Munoz explained.

The past four months have been spent identifying the young ones starting from the under-7s and moving upwards. Last month, during the course of the Dubai Tennis Championships, TE tied up with sportswear giant Head to dedicate two days to further help local children at the specially held Tennis Emirates-Head Clinic. Each week had 80 children being put through their paces by international tennis players from the ATP and WTA Tours.

“And for us, this is a real start,” Munoz says.

“From nothing, we are suddenly up to something, or at least I would love to think so. We have all Emirati children here, some of whom are talented and can turn out into good tennis players for the UAE,” he adds.

The thinking behind all this is quite simple: Just ensure there are numbers to start with. With time will come progression, and hopefully many of these kids will choose tennis as their preferred sport.

“We have already selected 50 from this bunch of more than 300 who are currently being trained by us. From these 50, if we can have just ten coming through each year, the tennis future of the UAE can be assured,” Munoz enthused.

Such forward-thinking is to keep these chosen children in an academy that will comply and work with school timings so that the kids don’t waste time. “The idea is to work with the talent we have, as after all this is a young tennis nation,” Munoz said.

“Omar [Behroozian] has been an exceptional player for the UAE, but with time he has reached a stage when he has to take the next step, be it as a coach or administrator. The good thing is that he loves the game too much and that’s why we still have him in the team,” he explained.

“I don’t mind if I have to wait for another five years to get the right player.”

The current hierarchy

(Seniors)

Omar Behroozian (1982)

Hamad Abbas Al Janahi (1990)

(National Team Reserves)

Mohammad Al Janahi (1993)

Mohammad Ahli (1993)

Abdul Rahman Al Janahi (1994)

Saud Al Ali (1994)

(Under-18)

Fatma Abbas Al Janahi (1995)

Majid Al Falasi (1996)

(Under-16: 1998 born)

Fahad Al Janahi

Abdullah Ahli

(Under-14: 2000 born)

Fares Al Janahi

Mohammad Qambar

(Under-12: 2001 born)

Majid Al Janahi (2001)

Sultan Abdul Karim Farooq

(Under-10: 2003 born)

Mansour Al Zarouni

Mohammad Omar Abbas

Yousuf Abbas

Hind Al Marzouqi

Aya Al Janahi

(Under-9: 2004 born)

Abdullah Al Marzouqi

Sultan Kodarzi

Hessa Al Blooki

Mahani Al Janahi

(Under-8: 2005 born)

Shaikha Al Janahi

Hamdan Al Janahi

(Under-7: 2006 born)

Abdullah Al Blooki

(Under-6: 2007 born)

Saeed Al Zarouni

-Ends

The Junior Files

*There are between 400 to 450 tennis courts all over the UAE. This includes recreation clubs, universities, hotels and schools.

*Al Wasl, Al Nasr and Fujairah Tennis and Country Club are the only three clubs primarily involved with development of UAE tennis players.

*In July 2001, Tennis Emirates (TE) launched its Shaikh Saeed Bin Mohammad Mini Tennis Under-12 Project at the Al Deyafa courts. This project was further extended to Al Shabab Club in Al Mamzar area.

*TE undertook a promotion drive at City Centre Deira during the course of the Dubai Summer Surprises in 2001. They managed to register 1,000 young children to the project that continued as part of the summer holidays programme.

*The Al Deyafa courts made way under the development plans for Dubai, while Al Shabab courts started being used for team sports as per the decision of its board of directors.

*From 2004 to 2007, the project was moved to Mirdiff and the promotional programme began to be called the TE Kids Day. In order to continue its driver, TE made use of various tournaments and events such as DSF, DSS, Sportex, Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge and the Dubai Tennis Championships.

*In 2007, the UAE was among the first countries in the world to embrace the ITF’s ‘Play and Stay’ programme, where the world governing body encouraged the use of red and orange courts. TE was also the first federation to host the ‘Play and Stay’ course for PE teachers.

*In 2010, TE split its calendar into five circuits: School circuit (7-10 years); Development circuit (11-14 years); Junior circuit (16-18 years); Mens and Womens circuit and the Veterans circuit.

*While the last two circuits have fallen victim to the financial crunch being experienced worldwide, TE has been pushing in the right direction with the School, Development and Junior circuits with as many as 55 local events being held in a year – a far cry from the ten that were held in 2001.

*In January 2012, the ‘Play and Stay’ programme was upgraded to ‘Tennis Tens’ with the slogan “serve, volley and score”.

-Ends