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Tournament chiefs admit errors over viral wildcard
Sunday Island
|January 11, 2026
The organisers of a professional women's tournament which has gone viral on social media because of a wildcard player's dire performance have acknowledged she should not have been allowed to play.
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Hajar Abdelkader's biography on the ITF website says she started playing tennis at the age of 14
Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader, 21, lost 6-0 6-0 and served 20 double faults during the first-round match in Nairobi on Wednesday, with the footage leaving many viewers wondering if she had ever played tennis before.
The amateur player won only three points during her 37-minute debut - two double faults by opponent Lorena Schaedel and an unforced error from the bemused German, ranked 1,026th in the world.
The match was part of an International Tennis Federation (ITF) W35 tournament, hosted by Tennis Kenya, the governing body for the sport in Kenya.
This story is from the January 11, 2026 edition of Sunday Island.
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