LONDON: Switching rackets can be one of the scariest decisions for a tennis player, but also incredibly rewarding for a career.

Egypt’s Mayar Sherif is banking on the latter after taking the bold decision to change her equipment from Wilson to Head.

At No. 86 in the world, Sherif is the second-highest-ranked Arab in professional tennis. And one of just two players from the Middle East North Africa region competing in singles at Wimbledon this fortnight — alongside Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur.

Two months ago, Sherif was encouraged by her coach, Justo Gonzalez, to test a new racket that would help her generate more power with less effort.

The racket she had been using for the past four years was unforgiving — “physically exhausting” is how Sherif put it. And for a clay-court specialist who frequently plays lengthy, grueling matches on the red dirt, a change felt like the smart way to go.

At 29, Sherif also felt that fiddling with her equipment could help extend her career.

So before the tournament in Parma in May, Sherif decided to try a new racket. There was one hitch though: she only had one racket to use for her first round because there was no time to get more from the manufacturer.

“I had one racket, and I knew that the racket lasts two hours, and then I’d break the strings. So I went to my first match knowing that if I get into a third set, I probably would have to switch back to my old racket.

“So this is the mentality I had with my first match,” Sherif told Arab News on Sunday ahead of her Wimbledon opener against Mirra Andreeva on Tuesday.

“I was getting panic attacks in the first set. I couldn’t control my heart rate. I couldn’t control everything. I’ve never felt that anxious on a tennis court.

“And the first set was going 5-all, 6-5, and I was so scared to lose one set, you know. So I won that match, and I won the second, and the other rackets came, and finally I won the tournament.”

After triumphing in Parma, Sherif took some weight off the new racket, looking to perfect it, and despite briefly losing faith in it, she ended up winning another tournament with it in Biarritz.

Sherif’s game is naturally-suited to clay, but the Egyptian is hoping she can make the necessary adjustments for the grass at Wimbledon, where she is contesting the main draw for a third consecutive season.

She explained that changing her racket is the first step in developing her identity as a player. All 12 of her titles won at the 100, 125 and 250 level, have come on clay.

The goal is to be able to tailor her game to other surfaces, including hard courts and grass.

“That’s the first step, to try to play not only clay-court tennis, to try to hit harder, to try so that the ball doesn’t pick up that much spin all the time, so that I get some easy power, so that I don’t have to generate everything myself. Because my other racket was a bit physically exhausting.”

“Also serving. Right now, I’m serving so much better than with my other racket. That’s something we worked on as well. I’m still at a moment where the racket is not 100 percent a part of me.

“But I’m getting there, and I’m having better feelings.”

Other adjustments she has been making include working on her slice returns and incorporating more drop shots into her game.

“Changing with a slice. I usually don’t change with backhand slice. But hopefully here, I can get some slices in general,” she added.

“Getting fitter and working on my movement, this is something I’ve worked on in the last couple of months. And I feel much better on court, lighter.

“Because here (at Wimbledon), if you’re not light, if you’re not on your feet, you run one time, and you’re not going to get back on court. You’re not going to get the next ball.”

Sherif’s experience is limited on grass. The former world No. 31 has played just seven tour-level matches on the surface — through main draws and qualifying — and has won just two of those encounters.

She has been enjoying her time in southwest London though, where she is renting a house with her team that is a short walking distance from the All England Club.

One of her sisters, mother and two aunts are in town to see her play, and the whole family — all addicted to tennis — have been taking in the immaculate surroundings of SW19.

“Everything here is very special, very beautiful. To play on grass is always something special, it’s different,” said Sherif.“So I’m just very happy to be here another time. To be in the top 100 is always rewarding, to play the Grand Slams. Hopefully here I can make a good result and work on my things. It’s a tough opening round, but hopefully I can go through it.”

Sherif’s opponent, Andreeva, is ranked No. 7 in the world, and is having a phenomenal season so far, that includes WTA 1000 title runs in Dubai and Indian Wells.

The 18-year-old Russian is playing her third Wimbledon and is 7-5 overall on grass at the pro level. Andreeva reached the fourth round, as a qualifier, on her tournament debut in 2023.

“It’s obviously challenging, because she’s been doing really good results. She’s been playing really well. She’s won a couple of big tournaments,” said Sherif of her first-round opponent.

“But to be honest, I’m looking to play now bigger tournaments, play at the higher level. I want to get myself to play at the edge of the high level. So, I’m looking forward to this match and to learn and keep learning week by week.”

BAD HOMBURG: Top seed Jessica Pegula contained Iga Swiatek’s heavy topspin game on grass to earn a 6-4 7-5 victory on Saturday and lift the Bad Homburg Open title.

The American held serve throughout and gave up just one breakpoint in the match, denying the Pole her first career title on grass, just two days before the start of Wimbledon.

Swiatek has not won a singles title since her 2024 French Open victory.

“I know you say you can’t play on grass but you are very, very good on grass,” Pegula said, addressing Swiatek after the match. “It was a special week.”

Pegula won a break at 3-3 in the first set to move 5-3 up.

The 31-year-old world No. 3, chasing her third title of 2025 and her first since April, landed the first set soon afterwards when the Pole sent a forehand long.

Swiatek put up a fight in the second set, edging close to a break but failing to carve out a break point.

It was Pegula who earned a breakpoint at 5-5 and she converted it with a sizzling crosscourt forehand.

Pegula held serve to seal her second career title on grass, following last year’s win in Berlin.

For Swiatek, who shed tears while waiting for the trophy ceremony, it was still a successful week after reaching her first career final on the surface.

“You have an amazing game and you showed it throughout the tournament,” Swiatek told Pegula. “Hopefully we will have many more finals together.”

“I feel it is going a good way and thank you for the opportunity to play here. This tournament shows there is hope for me on grass,” Swiatek said.

Separately, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is hoping an outburst after her French Open final defeat to Coco Gauff will prove a turning point in maintaining her emotional control in the biggest matches.

The three-time Grand Slam champion threw away a one-set lead to lose to the American in Paris earlier this month.

Afterwards, Sabalenka described her performance as the “the worst final I’ve ever played.”

The Belarusian later apologized to Gauff for her comments and the pair put their differences aside by performing a dance together on the Wimbledon lawns for social media.

“I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it,” said Sabalenka at a pre-Wimbledon press conference on Saturday.

“I believe I get overemotional at the last stages of the tournaments because I have this desire of winning.

“Sometimes it (gets the better of) me and I can lose control over my emotions. So, I would love to improve that at the last stages of the tournament.

“But honestly I’m kind of glad what happened to me at Paris because I was able to learn a lot. I was able to sit back and being open to myself, not just to ignore some things. I think I realized a lot of things about myself in those last stages of the tournaments.”

Sabalenka’s comments after the French Open were fiercely criticized in the US for taking the shine off Gauff’s second Grand Slam title.

“Of course, she got my respect. She knows it,” added Sabalenka.

“I’m happy that she was, like, ‘yeah, it’s all good, don’t worry’. As you saw the (dancing) video, I was talking, we are good, we are friends. I hope the US media can be easy on me right now.”

Sabalenka has never gone beyond the semifinals on the Wimbledon grass and begins her quest for glory against Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine, a player she admitted to having limited knowledge of.