He was ranked No11 in the world junior rankings and, like many promising youngsters who have turned 18
and graduated to the senior level, has been plowing his way up the rankings on the men’s circuit.
Egypt’s Karim Hossam climbed 829 spots to land at 338 in the world after only one full season on the men’s tour. He kicked off his 2014 season with a huge performance against world No9 Richard Gasquet at the Qatar Open in Doha last January, where he proved a big hit with the crowds.
I caught up with the 19-year-old Hossam to find out more about one of the Arab world’s biggest hopes in tennis.
You started last year ranked No1167 in the world, 12 months later you were ranked No338. Did you expect to make such a huge leap all in one season?
To be honest my target was to end the year in the top-500. I spoke to Karim Zaher, my coach, at the beginning of last year and we decided that I quickly needed to get in the top-700, within a couple of months and after that I’d try to get into the top-500.
But within a couple of months, I was already No470 in the world, and that was unexpected. But I stayed in Sharm El Sheikh for two and half months, playing a lot of matches there which really helped. Also playing at home makes a difference, it’s an advantage. Having all those tournaments in Egypt, you have support, people cheering on you, I enjoy that.
I was trying not to focus on ranking and just concentrate on my level. I was also lucky in a few tournaments. I was down match points in a couple of semi-finals but I ended up winning them. I’ve been through a lot of really tight matches recently and thank God I’ve managed to win those. So that made a difference and my confidence went up.
I won four Futures tournaments last season. The last one I won was extremely tough. I played a quarter-final over three and a half hours then a semi-final that went to a final set 7-5 – three hours or so – and the final was 7-6, 7-6, I felt like my heart was going to stop. So thankfully I pulled through it.
So you’ve been training with Karim Zaher all this time?
As a junior, I was based in California training at the Advantage Tennis Academy with Mahmoud Karim. I was there for two years, and when I got back to Egypt I worked with Karim Zaher at Gezira Club.
Once I was done with juniors, I faced the problem of military service, which is something that deters so many players in Egypt from pursuing a pro career in tennis.
So what did you do about the military service?
Initially I was going to postpone going to university for a couple of years to give my pro a career a go and if, God forbid, I got injured or things didn’t work out, I’d go to university. But I was forced to enroll in a university because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to get travel permits and would have had to go do my military service. So now I go to university, but they’re really understanding and allow me to go to tournaments and stuff. I’m studying language translation.