Egyptian junior Samir pleased with progress

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Working her way up: Sandra Samir.

    Egyptian junior Sandra Samir admits she’s inspired by the success of Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic on the women’s tour and hopes to be in her shoes next year.

    Samir, ranked 17 in the world junior rankings, was the only Arab playing in any main draw in Paris this fortnight but suffered a double blow on Monday by falling in her opening rounds in both singles and doubles.

    The 16-year-old, who reached the final of the prestigious Eddie Herr Championships last December, is yet to fully recover from a lower back injury and will undergo scans on Tuesday to see if she can resume her heavy schedule which includes appearances at Wimbledon, the Youth Olympics in Nanjing and the US Open.

    Samir, seed 15 in Paris, lost yesterday to Hungarian Fanny Stollar 6-2, 6-3 before partnering Great Britain’s Isabelle Wallace in a 7-6 (4), 6-4 defeat to No2 seeds Priscilla Hon and Jil Belen Teichmann.

    The young Egyptian, who made the second round in Paris last year, moved to California after that and has been training at Advantage Academy with coach Mahmoud Karim.

    She says she’s greatly improved her game since then and has been getting professional training she was previously lacking in Cairo.

    “Life there is organised. I attend my school classes online, the day is systematic,” Samir told Sport360. “In Egypt, I have to make a zillion calls to see who I’m going to practice. Really good coaches, Mahmoud Karim and Jimmy Johnson – they can see potential in me and want to raise my level. they are taking me as a challenge. I’m happy there.

    “ Life is different and of course I miss Egypt and my family but we visit each other and we find a way. I’m sure my parents want the best for me and that’s why they sent me there. They’re investing in me and I hope not to disappoint.

    “I changed a lot of things in my game. Every player is very protective over their game and it took me a while to allow anyone to change things in my game but Mahmoud my coach managed to gain my trust.

    “And after training hard with him I made the final at the Eddie Herr Championships and the quarter-finals at the Orange Bowl. So I did really well since I joined them.”

    Samir says she hopes to emulate the likes of Bencic and Taylor Townsend, who had lots of success on the junior stage and have now stepped up to the women’s circuit.

    “I played Bencic before and lost 4 and 4. She is a very good player obviously but if we look at how she reached this level, you’ll see that it was planned for her to reach all this when she was as young as 12 years old. She always had her coach, her fitness coach, the federation spends money on her, she had sponsors… all this,” said Samir.

    “I’m late in all this. It’s not too bad to be late, especially coming from the Middle East – my plan only started recently. So there’s a difference in resources and conditions for practicing which is why Bencic is ahead of me. But that gives me the motivation that next year I want to be in her shoes.”

    Samir added that she's targeting a top-eight finish in the year-end junior rankings so she can play next years Juniors Masters event and will spend the last four months of this season playing $25Ks and $10Ks on the women's circuit, in efforts to enter the top-250 in the WTA rankings, which would give her a shot at making the qualifying cut for the 2015 Australian Open.

    Recommended