They make movies about plucky underdogs who get their shot in the pros and conquer all. This is not one of those stories. Instead, this plucky underdog entered a women's tennis tournament in Nairobi and lost in spectacular fashion. The underdog was 21-year-old Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader, who—how to put this nicely—"appeared to have barely played the sport," as Charlie Eccleshare of the Athletic writes. It's not an exaggeration. Abdelkader's "bemused" opponent, Germany's Lorea Schaedel, had to show Abdelkader where to stand on the baseline to serve during warm-ups, per the BBC and the Telegraph.
In the end, Schaedel (ranked 1,026th in the world) defeated Abdelkader 6-0, 6-0 in the quick International Tennis Federation match, and how she did so was remarkable. Abdelkader double-faulted on 20 of 24 service points. The Egyptian did manage to win three points, but only because Schaedel herself double-faulted twice and also mishit a routine forehand when returning one of the rare serves that landed in bounds. Footage from the match has gone viral.
So how did Abdelkader even make the tournament? The Telegraph reports that she repeatedly asked Kenya Tennis for a wild card spot and kept getting turned down. But when a player dropped out at the last minute, they turned to Abdelkader without proper vetting. "In hindsight, Tennis Kenya acknowledges that this wild card should not have been granted," says secretary general Nancy Nduku. "The federation has taken note of this experience and will ensure that such an extremely rare occurrence never happens again." Abdelkader does not appear to have spoken publicly yet about the match.
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