Dubai: Trying to make it as a professional tennis star from the UAE can be tough.
It's a lesson that 13-year-old Grace Talih is learning the hard way. The Lebanese youngster walks home from school every day, changes into her sports kit and spends two hours on the courts near her home in Dubai.
She follows a nutrition and exercise regime and takes part in local tournaments.
But Talih knows that it's simply not enough. She faces the same five or six opponents at every tournament and practices against her dad, Samer, 48, and occasionally her younger brother, Talih, 12.
It's a far cry from the legions of young, hungry junior players who first picked up a racquet when they were toddlers and attend specialist schools for the top coaching.
"It's hard here," she said. "There are not very many tournaments here and there are only a handful of girls my age and we play each other all the time."
Next step
But her lack of match-readiness has not held Talih back. She defeated Emirati Fatma Abbas Al Jenahi, 6-1, 6-1 in the final of the West Asian Tennis Championships in Jordan recently and is now aiming for the All Asia Tennis Championships later in the year.
Talih's win in Jordan proved to Samer that his daughter has potential; he just has to decide what to do about it.
"I know the Williams sisters were coached by their father," he said. "But Grace needs seven hours of tennis coaching per day."
Now Samer, who is a managing partner in a construction company, and his wife, Nagham, are trying to decide whether to send Talih, who has only been playing serious tennis for three years, to an expensive tennis school in Europe.
"It would be a sacrifice for us all. It costs a lot of money and she has two younger brothers (Talih, 12 and Gabriel, 5) and I would want to treat them the same," explained Samer. "And she is too young to go there on her own. It is a very big deal."
A coach once described Talih as having a similar playing style to India's Sania Mirza.
But Talih is aiming far higher in the world rankings than even Mirza.
"I dream of being a known player," she said. "I want to be like Martina Hingis or Justine Henin. I want to represent Lebanon at the Fed Cup."
