Fatma Al Nabhani 'rock bottom' following Dubai qualifying exit

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Omani player Fatma Al Nabhani believes the only way is up.

    It’s not easy for a player to admit that they’ve hit “rock bottom” but that is precisely what Fatma Al Nabhani has confessed following her opening round exit in the Dubai qualifying event.

    – INTERVIEW: Karolina Pliskova – Rising star has Murray's attention

    – VIDEO: Stan Wawrinka defeats Milos Raonic in Rotterdam semis

    – Tomas Berdych defeats Gilles Simon to reach ATP Rotterdam s final

    Still, the 23-year-old Omani believes there is no way but up and with a new team around her, and a German academy to practice at, she is confident she can get her game back on track this season.

    Al Nabhani, the only female professional player from the Gulf, has been a real trailblazer for women from this region from the very start of her career and showed plenty of promise when she hit a career-high ranking of 362 at the tender age of 19.

    She wasn’t able to march any higher up the rankings since then and concedes that it has been exceptionally challenging trying to breakthrough as a tennis pro in this part of the world.

    “I’ve been without a coach for two years now. I’ve been doing it all on my own and unfortunately even back home (in Oman), I usually get help from my brothers, who used to play, but they’ve been unavailable, Mohammed is injured and Khalid is finishing his PHD,” Al Nabhani told Sport360 on the sidelines of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

    More is needed from the Omani

    “I’m not that kind of person that I believe in myself so much, but when people see me play they tell me I have a lot of potential to make it.

    “But you know how hard it is to make it when you’re from where I am. We don’t have the coaches, we don’t have enough facilities, we don’t have the physical things… to reach that place you need to have the full right team and everything. So that’s what I’m trying to do right now. I’m almost 24, there isn’t much time left for me. I’m trying as much as I can to do it the right way.”

    To prepare for this season, Al Nabhani spent three weeks at the Schuettler Waske Tennis Academy near Frankfurt – a facility founded by ex-ATP pros Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske – where the likes of Andrea Petkovic and Mona Barthel also train.

    In Dubai – where Al Nabhani won her opening doubles match alongside Barthel on Sunday – she was accompanied by Sonke Capell, one of the coaches from the academy, and she will have someone with her while traveling to tournaments throughout the year, as well as in Oman, to help her practice there.

    “Right now I feel like I’m hitting rock bottom but it’s also a good thing to start all fresh, to start new,” she explains. “This year is going to be completely different. I’m going to be playing in that academy and there will always be coaches with me on the road and back home.

    “What I like about Germans is that they’re strict and I need that. I’m a hard-worker but I need a person to push me to work hard. Because if I’m going to be home alone, I wouldn’t do it the right way.

    “Right now I need to work on everything. My game, mentally, physically, everything is unstable. I need to get that feeling, how I used to play before. I feel that it’s completely different now. I’m holding myself back. Before I never cared who I was playing, I just played my game. Now it’s not my game anymore. So I need to get that again. I lost it in the last year.”

    Recommended