The match in the capital of Kenya between the German Lorena Schaedel and the egyptian Hajar Abdelkader is dominating public debate in the tennis world for its scandalous tone. The images and statistics of the European victory by double 6-0 in 37 minutes of activity They are extremely eloquent.
Schaedel and Abdelkader crossed paths in the first phase of the W35 de Nairobi. The German lost just three points in the 12 games who disputed: committed two double faults and hit a long drive after his rival managed to return a serve on one of the few occasions he managed to do so.
The winner has 24 years and even has a position in the WTA ranking: it appears 1026 with 18 points in the main circuit. It also appears 403° en el ranking ITF (International Tennis Federation), which rose to 93rd place in the middle of last year although it does not have titles in singles or doubles.
Throughout his crossing before the Egyptian, He achieved 13 aces with 92% effectiveness on the first serve. The contrast in statistics is truly lethal: Abdelkader recorded 20 double faults and had a percentage of 8% on his first serve and 9% on the second serve. Only won 3 pointsand all 3 were due to the German’s mistakes. At times, he did not know which side to stand on to serve or wait for his rival’s serve, exposing a clear lack of knowledge of the regulations. The images were broadcast by the official ITF channel that broadcasts the various matches on its circuit and had the corresponding arbitration.
According to the main draw of the tournament on the ITF site, Hajar Abdelkader received a wild cardthat is, an invitation. The striking thing about the case, beyond his notorious difficulties in mastering his body and racket on clay, is that he has no career data in official records. It only appears that he is 21 years old.
Schaedel, who had just reached the second round in another W35 in Nairobi last week after beating the Egyptian Sandra Samir but then losing to her compatriot Anastasiya Kuparev, will play in the next round against the Chinese Yufei Renseventh seeded and located at 498th in the WTA ranking.
A fact that did not go unnoticed is that the best performance in the German player’s career was when she reached the third round of this Nairobi W35 in 2025where she won her first two matches and lost in the quarterfinals to Frenchwoman Alyssa Reguer. She later repeated that result in May at the W15 in Shymkent (Kazakhstan) with a quarterfinal that saw her lose against Elina Nepliy.
The world tennis circuit has the main tour that has the Grand Slam, WTA 1000, WTA 500 and WTA 250 depending on the demands of each tournament, although there is also the ITF tour which is the first professional ranking for all players. W100, W75, W50, W35 and W15 are the various ranges possible in this sports sphere.
The contest in Nairobi, which began on Monday, January 5 and will run until Sunday, the 11th, will distribute 30 thousand dollars in prizes. It is played in the Parklands Sports Club from the capital of the African country with the direction of Martha Tirop, according to ITF records.
The performance of the Egyptian Abdelkader dominated the debate on social networks. “The Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader was visibly playing tennis for the first time in her life. 0 and 0. 3 points won (a feat, given her level),” wrote the Tennis Legende account. “The Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader received a Wild Card to play the tournament, but it seems that it was her first time playing tennis. She made 20 double faults. She won 3 points in the entire match. A mistake,” added the Cancha Central profile.
“No, it was not a friendly tennis match between two friends, one of whom had never held a racket in her hand. The Egyptian player Hajar Abdelkader did participate on Wednesday in a professional and official ITF tournament,” reflected the French media. RMC before the fact. The Spanish newspaper Sport He assured that it is one of the “most shocking images that can be remembered in tennis” and classified it as an “embarrassing spectacle.” At the same time, they raised questions about the criteria for issuing an invitation to a professional tournament that distributes points for the circuit.
Until now, there has been no official statement from the tournament, from the authorities or from the protagonists themselves to express themselves about the match. They also did not detail whether it was any action linked to marketing.
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