W35 Nairobi wildcard Hajar Abdelkader has gone viral on social media after winning just three points in her first-round match against Lorena Schaedel. The contest in Kenya’s capital lasted just 37 minutes and featured 22 double faults, all but two of which were made by the unranked Egyptian player.
Two of the wildcard’s three points came from those double faults by her German opponent in the fourth game of their first set. The third and final one came after Schaedel overhit a backhand return in the second game of their second set.
Abdelkader, 21, had a first serve percentage of only 8.3%, which marginally rose to 9.1% on second serves. She double-faulted on all but four of her serves, including the first nine and last seven.
Schaedel, for comparison, had a 92.6% first serve percentage and aced her opponent 13 times. Her opponent is said to have begun playing tennis at the age of 14, but has no record of any previous professional matches.
An eight-second clip from the match, shared on X, that shows Abdelkader serving has garnered over one million views. Randy Walker, tournament director for Vero Beach Futures, replied: “This doesn’t even need to be investigated.
“It’s just a straight up disrespect to the integrity of the sport and the promoter needs to be replaced immediately and kicked out of the sport. This was a MAIN DRAW wild card entry into a W35 and the “player” is from Egypt.”
Walker said in a second post: “I’m sure that @itia_tennis will be all over this…” He tagged the International Tennis Integrity Agency in his message.
Express Sport have contacted the Women’s World Tennis Tour and W35 Nairobi tournament director, Martha Tirop, for comment. The clay-court event at Parklands Sports Club has a $30,000 (£22,240) prize money pool, and Schaedel faces the seventh-seed Ren Yufei in the next round.