He is the youngest of four Tunisians, across four different generations, taking part in Wimbledon this fortnight and made it through to the boys’ singles second round on Monday.
Meet the 18-year-old Mohamed Ali Bellalouna, who faces No16 seed Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi in the second round on Tuesday.
With Malek Jaziri losing in the first round in both singles and doubles, and Ons Jabeur falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in her singles opener, Bellalouna and Selima Sfar (in Legends Invitation Doubles) are the last two Arabs standing at SW19.
Here is everything you need to know about the young Tunisian…
He was born in Tunis, to Tunisian parents, and grew up playing there but has an Italian last name.
‘Mohamed Ali Bellalouna’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. He says his friends call him ‘Dali’ because it’s the last letter in ‘Mohamed’ combined with ‘Ali’. I thought it was because his friends considered him an artist (Salvador Dali and all) but turns out that’s not the case.
Bellalouna won the African Championship earlier this year which helped boost his ranking and get him in to the junior Grand Slams. Roland Garros last month was his first and made it to the second round. He’s hoping to go further at Wimbledon this week.
“It feels unbelievable, to be around the professional players, it’s a great atmosphere,” he says.
“It’s unbelievable to see players like Federer, Rafa, Djokovic in front of you. It’s like a dream. It’s very motivating, you have to play good, you can’t play bad, it’s a once in a lifetime experience maybe. I hope to be back one day as a senior. I took a picture with Rafa, I can’t not take a picture with him. He was nice,” says Dali. “I love Rafa.”
“It’s my first time playing on grass, I just practiced for three days I think. But I liked it, the way I play, my style of game, I’m lefty, so I think I’m playing well on it,” he says.
“I live in an ITF centre in Morocco, it’s my second year there. I’m with the ITF team now, the Grand Slam Development Fund Touring Team. It’s great to be at the ITF centre, we have a lot of opportunities there. I used to live in Tunis, play with the federation for the national team,” he explains.”
“The ITF centre is kind of apartments, we live together. It’s for African players. We study there as well, practice, we have a club for us. It’s quite good. It used to be in South Africa and now it’s in Morocco. I get to go home frequently because there are a lot of ITF tournaments in Tunisia.”
Asked how he got into tennis, he said: “I was watching tennis on TV, the French Open, and I liked it so I figured why not try? There aren’t a lot of Arab players of Africans, but I like it.”
“Malek is my idol, and Ons (Jabeur) is a good friend. When we were young, we were playing national tournaments together so she’s always asking about me, and I’m always asking about her. What Malek has done has motivated me a lot and it gave me hope of course. I want to be like Malek one day, playing Grand Slams on the men’s tour,” says Dali.
Dali hasn’t played that many junior tournaments despite the fact that he’s already 18. He’ll start playing Futures next year, and when he finishes his studies at the ITF centre next year, he will have to leave it and go on his own. He made a big leap in the junior rankings from last year until now.
“I just worked hard. It’s hard work and perseverance. Never giving up. I was 200 in the world last year, then I started the year well, won the African Championship, went up in the rankings, and made it into the Slams,” he says.
