She won 3 points. All of them were her opponent’s mistakes.
Every now and then, sport delivers a moment so baffling that millions of people stop what they’re doing and collectively ask: “How the hell did this happen?”
Last week, that moment came from a clay court in Nairobi, where 21-year-old Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader made her professional tennis debut. And by “debut,” I mean “37 minutes of footage that will haunt multiple tennis federations for years.”
The final score was 6-0, 6-0 to Germany’s Lorena Schaedel. That’s not unusual—bagel sets happen all the time in lower-tier tournaments. What was unusual was everything else.
Abdelkader landed fewer than one in ten first serves. She racked up 20 double faults. At one point, her opponent had to direct her to the correct side of the court. She won exactly three points across two sets, and all three were unforced errors from Schaedel—who, by the end, looked like she was playing against someone who’d wandered onto the court by accident.
Because, well, she kind of had.
The internet, predictably, lost its mind. Clips went viral within hours, racking up 3.5 million views on X. Comments ranged from “worst tennis player of all time” to “how is this real” to the more philosophical “what did I just watch?”
So how does someone who appears unfamiliar with the basic rules of tennis end up in a professional tournament?
Bureaucratic chaos, mostly.
A player withdrew at the last minute and moved to the qualifying draw. A spot opened up. Abdelkader had requested a wildcard. She was, according to Tennis Kenya, “the only other player who had requested a wild card.” So they gave it to her.
Nobody checked if she could actually play tennis.
Tennis Kenya has since released a statement admitting—in the understatement of the century—that “this wildcard should not have been granted.” The Egyptian Tennis Federation threw their hands up entirely, confirming Abdelkader isn’t registered with them and isn’t on any of their player lists. “Based on the information available to us, the player is currently residing in Kenya,” they said, which is bureaucrat-speak for “not our problem.”
The ITF called the situation “unacceptable” and said they’re now exploring “minimum playing standards requirements” for wildcards. Which seems like something you’d want to have sorted before handing someone a professional debut.
Look, it’s easy to laugh at the footage. But spare a thought for Abdelkader—she’s a 21-year-old who clearly got in way over her head, and now her face is attached to millions of viral posts calling her the worst athlete in history. Both Tennis Kenya and the ITF have apparently reached out to offer her support, which is the least they can do after chucking her into a professional match like a lamb to the slaughter.
The real villains here are the administrators who saw an empty spot, saw a name, and thought “yeah, she’ll be right.”
She was not right. She was very much not right.
Source: CNN
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