Rising tennis star Behbehani eyes many WTA events

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KUWAIT CITY, Aug 24: From a young age, her eyes were fixed on the yellow ball. With every leap of the ball during its flight between two rackets, her little heart used to leap. She started dreaming of the day when her soft palm would grab the handle of a racket and she could send the yellow ball into the space of brilliance and creativity in the fields of sports… Many agree that this sport is called the “Game of Kings”. Sarah Behbehani’s dream did not last long, as it soon became a reality.

She took up the tennis racket at the age of nine after joining the tennis club for girls. There she began developing her skills under the supervision of the Russian coach Mara, who discovered her talent, and saw in her a real star of the future who could be of the same level as the world’s top stars in the game of long tennis. Below is an interview with Sarah Behbehani, a member of the Kuwait National Tennis Team and one of the most prominent players in this sport at the local, Gulf, Arab and continental levels today.

Q: Can we first know briefly about your life and how you started playing tennis?

A: I was born on November 3, 1989 in California, San Francisco, after which we moved to Kuwait. Here, I joined the “Girl Club” at the age of nine through my mother, and soon I became part of the Under-12 Kuwait National Tennis Team.

Q: What are your latest achievements? Are you satisfied with them?

A: Alhamdulillah, I won the local women’s championship in the doubles and singles categories in 2019. I also ranked second in the singles and doubles in the 2019 Bahrain Championship. I participated in the Dubai Open Championship 2021 of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), in which a group of world players participated including nine of the top ten players of the world.

Q: What are the most important tournaments that you have participated in?

A: The most important tournaments in my life, which will always stay in my memory, are the Asian Games and the Dubai Open.

Q: How do you see the future of tennis in Kuwait?

A: With the opening of the Rafael Nadal Academy, I hope that future generations will develop the sports of tennis and Kuwaiti sports in general.

Q: Do you still consider Rafael Nadal as your idol in tennis?

A: For me, Nadal is the model in this sport, in terms of mental presence, high morals and physical strength. By the way, no other tennis player in history has managed to do what Nadal did… The fact that he won the Grand Slam title for many consecutive years is testament to that.

Q: There is no doubt that you have ambitions that you would like to achieve. What are these ambitions, and how are you preparing to achieve them?

A: One of the most important and biggest goals for me at the moment is to wrap up this year by participating in many tournaments of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Currently, I train six hours a week at the Nadal Academy, with the cooperation of the Kuwait Tennis Federation. I am hoping to intensify the training hours, and engage in competitions in order to develop the level of tennis in Kuwait.

Q: One last question which is of a different sport — Being a Gulf athlete, what does the Qatar World Cup 2022 mean to you?

A: I am very proud to have such a sporting event in the region. If anything, it manifests proper planning, so we hope to see more in the future in our region.

By Suzan Nasser Al-Seyassah, Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 23035 times!