\n\tDUBAI: Ahead of the ATP 500 men\u2019s tournament at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, former world No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime and British No. 1 Jack Draper surprised young tennis players during a clinic at the weekend.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe two players joined for drills and training with the young players and shared their sports journeys.<\/p>\n
\n\tDraper said in a press release: \u201cI remember being around Andy Murray when I was younger at the National Tennis Centre.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t actually take part in a clinic, but I think it\u2019s really amazing to give back, especially to young players. I remember when I was much younger and how inspiring it was to be around players like that.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe kids were amazing, and I think they definitely learned something. It was also really nice to see their reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDraper also spoke about meeting Murray: \u201cI was probably between 10 and 13, around the same age as these kids. I remember feeling like my dream was becoming a little more real after meeting him.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cJust being in his presence definitely made me want to play even more, because I looked up to him so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDraper offered some advice: \u201cJust enjoy your tennis, keep it simple, listen to the people who are trying to help you, and most importantly, have fun and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Auger-Aliassime, the clinic was particularly meaningful. \u201cA lot of kids were good players,\u201d said the Canadian, who reached the final in Dubai last year.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey have bright futures in front of them. They were all happy to see us, and it\u2019s nice to share some time with them because of the innocence of being a kid and having this dream of being a tennis player.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very nice to see smiles on their faces, and they have good energy on the court. There could be professional players in that group.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe emphasized the importance of daily commitment in a young player\u2019s development: \u201cI mean, it\u2019s nice and it\u2019s inspiring.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSome of them can take a little bit of inspiration from this, but the most important thing is what they do every day, you know, with their coaches and their families, what time they put in every day, that\u2019s the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong the participants was Megan Uzokwe, 10, who said: \u201cI was really surprised when they arrived. I felt amazing and so happy \u2026 I learned new techniques, especially volleys, and I think I\u2019ll remember this experience forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe championships runs from Feb. 23 to 28 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI: Ahead of the ATP 500 men\u2019s tournament at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, former world No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-498598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}