RIYADH, 7 September 2007 — Like any player imbued with youthful idealism Saudi-American Tamer Antabi wants to put Saudi Arabia in the world tennis map. His dream is to be a professional tennis player on the ATP circuit, and join Grand Slam tournaments.

Admittedly, he has a long way to go but the 18-year-old lefty who packs a mean forehand is the great hope of Saudi Tennis Federation that would lift the Saudi game to new heights.

The federation’s expectations are not without basis. Antabi served notice of his potentials when in 2004 he won the singles title in the Qatar Youth Open Tennis Tournament. He twice reached the finals in 2006 at two different tournaments — in the singles in an international tournament in Iran and the doubles in another tournament for under 18 in Jordan, where he also won third place in the singles.

A product of the famous Saddle Brook tennis academy in Tampa Florida in the United States, where he honed his skills, Antabi received a world ranking of 281.

“ I became so much better once training in the States especially the last two years, I have shown my biggest improvement and that is thanks to my tennis coach Rene Moller. If it wasn’t him or my academy, I wouldn’t have had a future in this sport,” said Antabi.

Antabi had to cut short his stint at academy in order to start college this fall in the University of San Diego on a tennis scholarship where he will join the tennis team there. “I see myself being the No. 1 player in my college tennis team and having a very good successful college tennis career.”

Born in Paris, France to a Saudi father and American mother, Antabi believes that if he stayed in Saudi Arabia he might not reach a high level because “tennis in the Kingdom still doesn’t enjoy popularity and not too many tournaments are organized in Saudi Arabia.”

Antabi looks up to US tennis icon Pete Sampras as his inspiration and role model. “Sampras is my idol; everything about his game was just amazing.”

He is also fascinated by world No. 1 woman tennis player Justine Henin.”She plays mostly like a man and executes beautiful strokes.”

Of the women in sports, Antabi said “women are talented in sports just like men. I believe if a woman wants to take a certain sport seriously why can’t she. She should have the right to. I hope one day they will allow women to practice the sport of tennis at an international level, because I bet we would have some great talent not only in the game of tennis but in all sports.”

Sports comes naturally to Antabi. Antabi says he picked up a racquet at the tender age of 4, at 11 he also dabbled in other sports like soccer and basketball. “I liked soccer more than tennis, but then thought about how tennis is a single sport and how soccer is a team sport. Also, knowing that all the hard work came from me and not from my teammates around me makes it more challenging to go for tennis.”

He agrees that not many Saudis are interested to take up tennis (there are only 4 Saudi players in the national team.) This he says was the direct result of the government concentrating only on soccer. “I bet if the sport authorities took more tennis seriously then we will have many qualified tennis players to compete internationally.”

Speaking of the humiliating defeat of the Saudi tennis national team in the Davis Cup Asian zonals in Sri Lanka last month, Antabi blamed the absence of motivation and the lack of training on a regular basis for the debacle.

He said “players only get to practice a month before a tournament or a few weeks before a tournament and the federation thinks that is good enough for them to do well. The players must have a good coach willing to look after them and make sure they come to practice everyday, and the federation must let the players travel all year round, not only before a tournament for them to be better. Failing that there would be no hope for Saudi tennis.”

The young Saudi tennis ace says playing a lot of matches builds confidence.”Before a tournament match, I train very hard so I can do well and achieve a confidence level.”

Antabi likes to do other things to boost his confidence. “Usually I like to travel with my tennis coach so he tells me what to do and to keep me in relaxed confident manner. Right before a match though I make sure I have a good session of practice and I usually listen to music to keep me calm.”

As he pursues his dream to pit skills with the world’s elite players, Antabi is confident success won’t spoil his demeanor but make him a better person instead.