Social media erupted on Wednesday after footage from a W35 tennis tournament went viral, showing an extraordinarily one-sided performance in the first round. Wildcard entrant Hajar Abdelkader managed to win just three points in her match at the W35 event in Nairobi and at one stage even had to be instructed where to stand to serve.
The match, played in Kenya’s capital, lasted only 37 minutes. Abdelkader committed 20 double faults, prompting widespread speculation online about how she had been granted a main-draw wildcard. Two of her three points came via her opponent’s double faults in the fourth game of the first set, while the third came when Schaedel overhit a backhand return early in the second set. Notably, Abdelkader did not win a single point outright off her own racquet.
Her serving statistics were particularly alarming: an 8.3% first-serve percentage and just 9.1% on second serves. The now-viral clip showed the Egyptian player struggling to execute a conventional service motion, often attempting to simply float the ball over the net. She double-faulted on all but four of her service points. By contrast, Schaedel posted a 92.6% first-serve percentage and fired 13 aces.
Although Abdelkader is reportedly 14 years old and said to have been playing tennis for several years, there appears to be no public record of her competing in any previous matches.
The video has since surpassed one million views online. Reacting to the footage, a Futures tournament director said: “This doesn’t even need to be investigated. It’s a blatant disrespect to the integrity of the sport. The promoter should be removed immediately. This was a main-draw wildcard at a W35 event, and the ‘player’ is from Egypt.”
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