Egypt’s former top tennis junior looks to leave controversy behind, eyes redemption in padel

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Updated 02 November 2022
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Egypt’s former top tennis junior looks to leave controversy behind, eyes redemption in padel

  • Youssef Hossam, once in world top 10, had career ruined by match-fixing offenses but seeks new purpose in life

When Youssef Hossam received a lifetime ban from tennis two-and-a-half years ago for committing match-fixing offences, the Egyptian suffered an “identity crisis” as he struggled to find purpose in life.

After being a top 10-ranked junior in the world, and a top-300 player on the ATP tour before the age of 20, Hossam’s shot at a career in professional tennis was ruined and his ties to the sport were reduced to coaching local children back home in Cairo.

Little did he know that a couple of years later he would get a second chance at a pro career in sports, this time in padel, where he is starting to make a name for himself and is representing Egypt in the ongoing world championships taking place in Dubai this week.

“When I got banned from tennis, I had two or three years where I had an identity crisis,” Hossam told Arab News last week, on the sidelines of the Premier Padel tournament in Cairo.

“I moved on and I worked in tennis as a coach and I started having good players that were winning.

“I tried boxing locally and I won one amateur fight. It really was an identity crisis.

“Of course when padel appeared, I felt like this was something I could pursue full-time professionally and to work and get back to the kind of life I’ve always been used to, the only life I know how to live on a professional level. So I took it as a second chance.”

Finding a purpose

Hossam was provisionally suspended from tennis in July 2019 pending an investigation and learned his final fate in March 2020.

“The toughest thing in those two years (after my suspension) was the period right after I woke up. I usually woke up and had a routine, had practice, I had my alarm set and had a long day ahead of me. Then suddenly I found myself waking up and I had nothing to do. Completely free. That for me was very strange and was very depressing,” said the 24-year-old.

“What helped me make this transition to padel was taking it one thing at a time. Doing things to the best of my ability, one day at a time. At some point, when I would look at the bigger picture, I didn’t have reasons to push or train. I’m banned from the sport I had been playing for 17 years, so why stress? Why train? There is nothing to train for.

 

 

“I was just a coach and for coaching you don’t need to be super fit, so I had every reason to be lazy and to chill. But I didn’t do that. Even when I was coaching, I tried to hit with my players to stay fit.

“I didn’t know that in two or three years I would be a professional padel player. I didn’t know anything. But I kept going, not because I’m special, not at all, but that was the only option in front of me. Either I give up and I turn off the engines completely, or I continue to train and try to push.”

A year ago, Hossam quit his coaching job to dedicate himself to being a professional padel player.

“I’m lucky I’m here today. I have an opportunity in front of me, I’m just starting out in a new career, I didn’t achieve anything. I’m not at the level of professional (padel) players and finally I have something to work for,” he said.

‘I’m willing to do everything right’

Hossam was Egypt’s most promising tennis prospect in decades and he admits he never fully acknowledged the talent he had nor the opportunities ahead of him.

“I took it for granted,” he confessed. “When things stopped and everything was taken away from me, I realized its value. That’s why now I’m not willing to take any risks, I’m not willing to make any mistakes. I’m working 100 percent focus and physically, it’s no joke.”

Hossam says he is more serious in everything he does now, and you can read it in his face.

“I feel like life got tough for me a bit. I lost my father last year. And I felt like now is the time to man up and take responsibility,” he added.

“I no longer have the luxury of, oh I lost, it’s no big deal. There are expenses, there are responsibilities. I’m 24 now, I’m not 17, 18 years old anymore, the rising star that has his whole life ahead of him. I have maybe 10 years left in my professional career, so I have to make the best out of it. Life got tough and this is a second chance. I’m not willing to miss any small chance. I’m willing to do everything right, God willing.”

 

 

Grave consequences

Hossam does not shy away from discussing the mistakes he made in the past. He says he has made peace with everything that happened and has no intention of burying his head in the sand.

He blames tough circumstances and lack of knowledge as the main reasons that drove him to fix matches and says at the time, he felt like he had no choice.

“Part of it, I was unfairly judged, part of it was wrongdoings from my end but I wasn’t aware I was doing anything wrong, and another part was me knowingly doing something wrong and thinking it would slide because I felt I was in difficult conditions, my dad was in a critical condition. To the best of my knowledge, the period of time where I made those mistakes, I felt like that was, not the only option, but the best I could do,” he explained.

“I didn’t criticize myself because I know I had no options, I had no one helping me. No one around me understood anything. No one knew what match-fixing meant, no one knew what it meant to be approached by someone before a match and that you have to report it. Report to who? And what does TIU (Tennis Integrity Unit) mean? The IPIN (International Player Identification Number) I use to sign up for tournaments which has all the policies and guidelines, my mom is the one who did it for me. There was lack of knowledge and lack of awareness to a huge extent.

“And ultimately you are being judged based on your knowledge of these policies, which is fair on their part, because I obviously signed on (to) these agreements, but to the best of my knowledge, I feel like I couldn’t do much better than I did.

“And if I go back in time and I’m in the same situation again, I probably would have done something similar to what I’ve done because I didn’t feel I had a better option.

“Of course if I had the mentality I have right now, I would have made better decisions and I would have handled it way better, but back then I didn’t understand anything.”

‘Nothing luxurious about it’

Hossam does not get into why he feels he was unfairly judged, but emphasized that his decision to fix matches was not to simply get richer, but to him was a matter of earning enough money to continue competing in tennis.

“I was in a camp and training and paying 1,000-ish euros per week so I could practice and compete at a high level,” he said.

“No one supported me except my dad. Until the day he died he was my only sponsor, I had no financial support. No one even wanted to help me, there was no intention for that.

“I was completely on my own. My dad got sick and went into the hospital, there were complications, I got depressed when my dad was hospitalized. My brother Karim was involved in this (match-fixing), we had choices in front of us and we took them. We didn’t have the luxury of having many choices.

“People think that when it comes to match-fixing that we did it because we wanted to make money illegally and to make money for the sake of making money. I wanted to get some money so I could train, I was desperate to make it, there was nothing luxurious about it.

“If there was a single entity supporting me, things could have gone differently. I had no idea these were the consequences when I did that.”

Hossam added that even when he sought guidance, the person he turned to had no idea what tennis’ anti-corruption program, or TACP, was.

“I once called a Davis Cup coach and was asking him something about the TACP, which is the book that has the rules of tennis’ anti-corruption program, and the Davis Cup coach was like, ‘What is the TACP?’ He didn’t even know what it was.

“This is supposed to be the most qualified coach in Egypt, he is a Davis Cup coach and should have awareness of all these things. That’s the level of knowledge we have here in Egypt.”

 

 

Focus on world championships

In the wake of the ban on the Hossam brothers — among others — the Egyptian Tennis Federation took action and held information sessions to educate young players and parents about the dangers of getting involved with those fixing matches.

Although he has yet to hear from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, about his last appeal against his lifetime ban, Hossam has already moved on and vows to make the most out of his second chance.

He is currently in Dubai at the World Padel Championships after Egypt impressed in qualification by defeating Japan and Iran.

Egypt lost their opening Group D tie with France before defeating Qatar 2-1, with clashes against Paraguay and Mexico still to come.

“I think we deserved to qualify,” said Hossam.

“The world championship itself is a whole other story. There are countries you can’t really get near them, like Spain, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, countries that have been playing padel for many many years.

“So it’s unfair to us to compare ourselves to them, and it’s unfair to them to be compared to us. I have been playing padel for less than a year whereas they’ve been playing since they were kids.

“The experience will be the number one thing for us, to get exposure to these people, to compete against them, to have the pleasure of sharing a court with them. But there are some countries where we can try to go for the win.

“We’ll try to win as many matches as possible. It will be a great experience in a beautiful country like the UAE. It’ll be great hospitality and a world-class event, I’m looking forward to it.”


Proud Draper sees Indian Wells triumph as fruit of his labors

Updated 20 March 2025
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Proud Draper sees Indian Wells triumph as fruit of his labors

  • Draper’s Indian Wells victory was viewed as a surprise in many quarters but the player himself said he had felt an important win was increasingly within his reach
  • Draper said his first tournament victory on the tour, in Stuttgart last June, had been a turning point in his confidence that he could reach the elite in the sport

MIAMI GARDENS: For Britain’s Jack Draper, his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells on Sunday was a moment of pride and joy but not, he suggests, a huge surprise.

The 23-year-old enjoyed an outstanding two weeks in the Californian desert, enjoying an upset win over Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals, after beating top Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz.

In the final he defeated Denmark’s Holger Rune in straight sets — a triumph which moved him into the top 10 for the first time in his career.

Asked what his main emotion had been in the aftermath of that triumph, Draper said: “I think big pride ... to be able to celebrate that with my team ... in tennis, there’s lots of ups and downs, there’s lots of adversity, especially for me over the years.

“I feel like I’ve been on a big journey with my team and the guys around me, and they’ve been incredibly supportive of myself,” Draper said Wednesday as he prepared for this week’s Miami Open in Florida.

Draper’s Indian Wells victory was viewed as a surprise in many quarters but the player himself said he had felt an important win was increasingly within his reach.

“I feel like, I’ve been on a trajectory where I’ve been really consistent for a while, putting in great work, trying to really learn and grow, not only as a player, but also as a person off the court. And I feel like it’s amazing,” he said.

“That moment felt amazing, not because of the win and all that, just because, you know, the accumulation of all the hours spent, all the hard work, all the figuring out the problems and the things we need to improve.

“And to be able to celebrate that with the close people around me, my family, you know, that feels amazing,” he said.

Draper said his first tournament victory on the tour, in Stuttgart last June, had been a turning point in his confidence that he could reach the elite in the sport.

“I was a lot calmer because of that. I feel like that was something I needed to get over as a hurdle in my mind as a young player. When you come onto the tour, it’s difficult. You’re kind of in the changing room with all the players you’ve watched on the TV and you admire.

“I’m sure everyone feels that, you feel like you don’t belong and then you’re out on court and you’re playing. But I think the more and more experiences I’ve got of playing big matches and winning against big opponents and all this sort of stuff.

“And obviously, semifinal of US Open and winning Vienna, all the accumulation of things, I think over time is helping me to believe more and more that I’m capable of, you know ... I don’t know what I am capable of, I don’t like to think too far ahead,” he said.

With the distance of a few days, Draper is able to put Sunday’s victory into context but he didn’t try to hide the satisfaction it had given him and the extra boost to his self-belief.

“It definitely gives me more confidence and more inner belief than I had before.

“But at the same time, I’ve been sort of building toward this, I’ve been improving all the time at the back end of last year. I was on a really good run of form.

“I feel great about everything and I don’t feel crazily different. I just keep up the hard work, keep on doing what I’m doing, and hopefully it keeps on coming together for me,” he said.

Draper will start off his Miami Open bid on Saturday against either Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut or Czech Jakub Mensik.


Djokovic player union launches legal blitz against governing bodies

Updated 18 March 2025
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Djokovic player union launches legal blitz against governing bodies

  • ATP and WTA responded by vowing to defend themselves against the claims
  • “The lawsuits expose systemic abuse, anti-competitive practices, and a blatant disregard for player welfare that have persisted for decades,” said the PTPA

MIAMI: A tennis union co-founded by Novak Djokovic on Tuesday announced a series of legal actions aimed at the sport’s governing bodies, alleging “anti-competitive restraints and abusive practices.”
The Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) said it was suing both tour organizers, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
The International Tennis Federation (ITF), and International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) were also named as defendants in a series of actions in the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.
Both the ATP and WTA responded by vowing to defend themselves against the claims with the men’s tour saying the PTPA has “consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress.”
The PTPA was set up by Djokovic and Canadian Vasek Pospisil in 2020. Some 20 players were named as part of at least one of the actions.
“The lawsuits expose systemic abuse, anti-competitive practices, and a blatant disregard for player welfare that have persisted for decades,” said the PTPA statement.
“The ATP, WTA, ITF, and ITIA operate as a cartel by implementing a number of draconian, interlocking anti-competitive restraints and abusive practices.”
“Tennis is broken,” said Ahmad Nassar, Executive Director of the PTPA.
“Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardizes their health and safety.”
The statement listed alleged abuses they are targeting.
It said the defendants “colluded,” “fixing prize money and suppressing player earnings” forcing “an unsustainable schedule” and exploiting players financially.
The bodies show a “disregard for players” by making them “compete in 100-degree (Fahrenheit) heat, endure matches that ended at 3 am, and play with different and injury-inducing tennis balls.”
The PTPA also cited image right ownership, sponsorship restrictions and the “draconian system of ranking points.”
The statement also complained that tennis violates player “privacy rights.”
“Players are subjected to invasive searches of personal devices, random middle-of-the-night drug tests, and interrogations without legal representation,” it said.
The ATP said that it was continuing to make change, with player input and hit back at the union.
“While the ATP has remained focused on delivering reforms that benefit players at multiple levels, the PTPA has consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress,” the statement read.
“Five years on from its inception in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a meaningful role in tennis, making its decision to pursue legal action at this juncture unsurprising.
“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position. The ATP remains committed to working in the best interests of the game — toward continued growth, financial stability, and the best possible future for our players, tournaments, and fans,” the tour concluded.
The WTA also defended their approach to the game and said that PTPA’s action “is both regrettable and misguided, and we will defend our position vigorously in due course.”
In addition to Djokovic and Pospisil, the seven-member PTPA executive council also includes players, Hubert Hurkacz, Ons Jabeur, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Taylor Townsend and Zheng Saisai.
Australian Nick Kyrgios, France’s Varvara Gracheva and American Reilly Opelka have joined the PTPA’s case in the United States, while Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Japan’s Taro Daniel have joined the case in the United Kingdom.


Draper powers past Rune to win Indian Wells ATP Masters

Updated 17 March 2025
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Draper powers past Rune to win Indian Wells ATP Masters

  • Draper: All the work I’ve done over the last few years, it feels like it’s all coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words
  • Draper’s run to a third career title included victories not only over Alcaraz but also over 2022 Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz and big-hitting home hope Ben Shelton

INDIAN WELLS, California: Britain’s Jack Draper roared past Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday to win his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.

The 14th-ranked Briton, who toppled two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals, didn’t face a break point as he subdued the 13th ranked Dane in just 69 minutes.

He’ll make his top 10 debut on Monday at seventh in the world.

“It’s incredible,” said Draper, a US Open semifinalist last year whose preparations for 2025 were hindered by a flareup of hip tendinitis.

“I’m just so grateful and happy to be out here, to be able to play, my body feeling healthy, to feel great in my mind.

“All the work I’ve done over the last few years, it feels like it’s all coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words,” added the 23-year-old, who also missed significant time with a shoulder injury in 2023.

Draper was rock-solid in his first Masters 1000 final, racing to a 4-0 lead as Rune made a nervous start.

Draper dropped just four points on serve in the opening set as Rune, who burst on the scene with a precocious Paris Masters triumph in 2022, had 10 of his 19 unforced errors in the set.

The Dane had managed to hold serve twice before Draper pocketed the set, giving himself set point with an ace before Rune thumped a backhand into the net.

Draper broke Rune to open the second set, and even though the Dane got a few more looks at Draper’s second serve he couldn’t take advantage.

Draper seized a second break for a 5-2 lead and after sending a forehand long on his first match point he had the win when Rune went long with a backhand.

Draper’s run to a third career title included victories not only over Alcaraz but also over 2022 Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz and big-hitting home hope Ben Shelton.

“I feel like I deserve it, in all honesty,” Draper said. “It’s an emotional feeling to know how much you’ve gone through and put in and to be here now to say that I’m going to be No. 7 sin the world tomorrow, I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”


Andreeva, 17, tops world No. 1 Sabalenka for Indian Wells title

Updated 17 March 2025
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Andreeva, 17, tops world No. 1 Sabalenka for Indian Wells title

  • Andreeva shook off her first set woes and broke Sabalenka three times in the third pushing her 2025 record to 19-3 — the most wins of any woman on the WTA tour

INDIAN WELLS, United States: Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva toppled world number one Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday to capture her second WTA 1000 title at Indian Wells.
Andreeva, who last month become the youngest ever player to win an elite 1000 level crown with her triumph in Dubai, ended a frustrating run against the Belarusian to ensure she will rise to a career-high sixth in the world on Monday.
Andreeva shook off her first set woes and broke Sabalenka three times in the third pushing her 2025 record to 19-3 — the most wins of any woman on the WTA tour.
“I would like to thank myself for fighting to the end,” Andreeva said. “I was running like a rabbit today because Aryna she was sending bullets and it was really hard to keep up.”
In a match of swinging shifts of momentum, Andreeva was in full control by the end, giving herself a match point on Sabalenka’s serve with a defensive lob that forced a miss from the number one and clinching victory with a forehand winner.
“The match point I just really tried to just put the return in, it doesn’t matter how,” she told Tennis Channel. “Then I just saw the ball and I decided I might just go for it.
“And I did,” added Andreeva, who sank to her knees in celebration after her winner landed.
Andreeva claimed her first hard court victory over Sabalenka, who had beaten her twice already this year at Brisbane and the Australian Open.
Sabalenka had powered into the final without dropping a set but it was another disappointment for the Belarusian, who was stunned by Madison Keys in the final at Melbourne to see her bid for a third successive Australian Open title denied.
Unlike in Melbourne where she played “like a joke,” Sabalenka said, this time she let her emotions get the best of her.
“Honestly, was me against me,” she said. “I made a lot of unforced errors on important points, and I just let her play a little bit better ... I was just too pissed with myself, because I think it shouldn’t be the way I finished and I was just pissed with myself.
“I should have just thrown that aggression on that side instead of being too hard on myself.”
Andreeva had Sabalenka under pressure early, and the youngster’s frustration was evident as she was unable to convert four break points in the third game.
Sabalenka took full advantage, breaking the Russian to love for a 3-1 lead and keeping her foot firmly on the accelerator from there.
Sabalenka backed up her power from the baseline with some confident forays to the net, breaking Andreeva to take the opening set in 37 minutes.
“The anger was just boiling inside of me, because I had a lot of opportunities I didn’t convert,” said Andreeva, who wasted another three break points to open the second set.
She finally gained a foothold with a break for 2-1 — pouncing on a Sabalenka second serve to end a run of 18 missed break point chances against the Belarusian this year.
“I was so desperate to win at least one game on her serve ... every time she served I just tried to win one more game and then one more game,” Andreeva said. “Somehow I kind of crawled and came back and we got into the third set like this.”
Andreeva saved a pair of break points to push her lead to 4-2, her winners tally climbing with her confidence.
After missing one chance to take the set on Sabalenka’s serve, Andreeva sealed the set with her first love service game, complete with a pair of aces to close it.
The Russian maintained her momentum as she broke Sabalenka to love to open the third.
Sabalenka promptly broke back, but that proved just a speedbump as Andreeva broke again for 2-1 and didn’t face another break point.


Sabalenka to face teen Andreeva in Indian Wells final

Updated 15 March 2025
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Sabalenka to face teen Andreeva in Indian Wells final

  • The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win

INDIAN WELLS: Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0, 6-1 to book an Indian Wells title showdown with teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.

Red-hot Russian 17-year-old Andreeva showed plenty of poise in a 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the second-ranked Pole’s bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.

“I was hungry,” said Sabalenka, who had made no bones about wanting revenge after Keys denied her bid for a third straight Australian Open title in January.

“That Australian Open match was really heartbroken for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that.

“And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused — I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.”

Keys, who was riding a 16-match winning streak, couldn’t get a foot in the door.

Sabalenka was untroubled by the cold, swirling wind on Stadium Court as she won the first 11 games.

“I think tactically I played really great tennis,” said Sabalenka, adding her strategy was to “just keep her out of the rhythm.”

The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win and lined up a shot at the WTA tour’s newest sensation Andreeva in what 26-year-old Sabalenka quipped would be “kind of like an old mama playing against a kid.”

Andreeva beat Swiatek for the second time in as many tournaments, having stunned the Polish star in the quarter-finals at Dubai last month on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.

Swiatek, who hadn’t dropped a set in winning 10 straight Indian Wells matches, looked supremely confident as she dropped just one point in her first three service games.

But it was Andreeva who claimed the first break of the tense first set for a 5-4 lead.

After Swiatek broke back and they reached the tiebreaker, Andreeva seized control, opening with a blistering backhand winner and pocketing the set on her first opportunity as Swiatek sent a backhand wide.

“I felt like I’m gonna go and play the tiebreak like it’s the last tiebreak of my life,” she said. “So I just went for all my shots. My serve was great. I just felt super comfortable and confident,” she said.

Swiatek put her frustrations aside and broke Andreeva to open the second set, breaking her twice more as the Russian’s errors multiplied under pressure from her opponent.

“The second set, it was a bit weird,” Andreeva said. “I just felt like she literally overplayed me, because she was playing pretty deep with good height over the net. It was really hard to do something with these shots.”

The roles reversed again, however, when Andreeva stepped up her attack and broke Swiatek to open the third, and she sealed the win with her third break of the set.

“I just decided to kind of still play the same but maybe go for my shots more, trying to play a little bit more aggressive,” she said.

“I feel also that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself.”