Chennai
The 31-year-old Altamimi is a Physical Education (PE) faculty at a high school, with a decade’s experience. The Kuwaiti, who is ranked 103 in the world, has so far competed in over a 100 events.
“In our nation, most players study or work in the first half of the day. We then train in the evenings. Sometimes, I run away from school to go to practice (laughs). I use my salary to travel to various tournaments,” Altamimi, who is in the city for the HCL-SRFI India Tour Chennai leg, told DT Next.
The Kuwait City-based participant defeated teenager Yash Fadte 3-1 (8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5) in the opening round on Sunday. Despite not being a professional, Altamimi is a regular at the PSA Challenger Tours, giving his rivals a run for their money. He feels Government backing is essential to succeed at an even higher level.
“We have good talent back home but our country doesn’t support sports much. I would love to be a professional player. Sadly, we don’t have the system to do that. The whole nation should back us, we need proper coaches and infrastructure. As of now, we only have about seven senior players training at the National Centre,” added Altamimi.
Asked how he got introduced to the sport, he came up with an interesting response. “When I was eight, I gave tennis a try for a few weeks. I didn’t like it because I felt the tennis racquet was heavy for me (laughs). My dad asked me to continue with it, but I wished to switch to squash. Since then, it has been going good.”
Yash goes down
India’s Yash Fadte went down 1-3 to Ammar Altamimi of Kuwait in the first round of the HCLSRFI India Tour Chennai leg on Sunday.
After winning the first game comfortably, Yash was off the boil in the next three to lose 11-8, 5-11,6-11, 5-11.
RESULTS: Men’s: First round: Ammar Altamimi (Kuwait) beat Yash Fadte (India) 3-1 (8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5); Angus Gillams (Scotland) beat Shady El Sherbiny (Egypt) 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-3); Aadit Zaveri (India) lost to Addeen Idrakie (Malaysia) 0-3 (11-13, 4-11, 4-11); Abhay Singh (India) beat Naoki Hayashi (Japan) 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 12-10).
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android