Egypt's tennis squad gets ready to face up to the challenge in this year's Davis Cup, Ghada Abdel-Kader reports The Egyptian Tennis Federation (ETF) held a press conference at the headquarters in Cairo Stadium, to announce the appointment of the new technical director of the Egyptian Davis Cup team Tamer El-Sawy, in preparation for the Europe/Africa Zone Group III of the 2011 Davis Cup. The Group III tournament will be held in the week commencing 4 July at Smash Tennis Academy, Cairo. El-Sawy said, "It's a great honour to be a part of the Egyptian team. I have been waiting for this chance for a very long time. I'd like to thank ETF for giving me this opportunity." The tournament is organised in a round-robin format for 14 nations in four pools. The nations are Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Top nations play off to decide which two nations are promoted to Europe/Africa Zone group II for the year 2012. Last year, Egypt hosted Denmark in the Europe/ Africa Zone Group Level II playoffs of the 2010 Davis Cup. In the Group Level II first round, Egypt was defeated by Cyprus 3-2 in Limassol. Then Egypt was beaten by Denmark 5-0 in Cairo. In their previous meeting, Denmark had come out victorious with a 3-1 win. The victory kept Denmark in Group Level II, while Egypt fell to Group Level III. The Egyptian team's new technical director El-Sawy is a retired tennis player. He won his first men's title in the Egypt Open Championship at the age of 15. From 1992 to 1998 he travelled internationally and kickstarted his career as professional tennis player. He retired after the France Open Championship in 1998. He established his own El-Sawy Tennis training centre in Tampa, Florida. Since then, he has lived in Florida. El-Sawy has seven years of experience as a player and 12 as a coach. He has played in most major events including 13 grand slam events, including the US Open, the French Open, the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the Japan Open, Rome, Casablanca, Chennai, the Mexican Open, the Qatar Open, the Copenhagen Open and Saint Petersburg. El-Sawy has won titles in singles and doubles games. He was Davis Cup player on the Egyptian team for 12 consecutive years. His highest Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking was 128, which he attained on 10 February 1997, and his highest United States Tennis Association (USTA) ranking was 117 in 1995. From 1998 to date El-Sawy has coached a number of professional players ranked as high as fourth in the world in the junior ITF rankings, and 140th in the ATP tour world rankings. From 1998 till 2001, he was also the director of player development and professional programmes at Palmer Tennis Academy, Tampa, Florida. From 2001 to 2011, he worked as volunteer assistant coach in the men's tennis team in the University of South Florida. This year the Egyptian Davis Cup team is about to compete on an international level. The team consists of six players, namely Mohamed Safwat, Karim Maamoun, Sherif Sabri, Karim Mohamed Maamoun, Omar Hedayet and Karim Hossam. El-Sawy said, "The choice of the five players depends mainly on the players' international ranking. The sixth player is a technical choice by the ETF and is part of ETF's policy. Egypt always manages to have an honourable presence on the national and African levels, but we are looking forward to making it internationally." El-Sawy added: "I started working with the Egyptian team 10 days ago, as soon as I arrived. I have had several meetings with the ETF's administrative board, so we can figure out the system we are going to work with. As for the technical side of things, I am working to find out the players' needs and have made contact with them to see how to improve our system. I gave the team intensive training at El-Gezira Sporting Club. The players are very committed to their training." El-Sawy went on: "In the coming period, the players are going to travel to participate in international championships in Morocco and European countries. We have 10 weeks before the Davis Cup. They are going to participate in four or seven championships. In addition to, there is going to be a training camp for the players immediately before the start of the Davis Cup. I will be there and the players will be under my supervision." As for his feeling about how the Egyptian team will fare, El-Sawy added: "I have great confidence in the Egyptian players, and that they are going to achieve good results." Commenting on the lack of resources for tennis, ETF President Israa El-Sanhouri said: "I have made requests for the ETF to have its own tennis courts both before the revolution and after it, so we can host our championships and enable the coaches to train with the players. To date this problem has not been solved. When our teams need to train, we ask the big clubs we are on good terms with to host us." As for the ETF's agenda for the coming period, El-Sanhouri added that "Egypt will host the Fed Cup on 2 May at Smash tennis academy. It is a huge sports event. In all 180 countries are going to participate in this championship."
