“The Egyptian Hayar Abdelkader could not even serve properly”, — write: sport.ua
Egyptian woman Hayar Abdelkader could not serve properly during the match with Lorena Shadel
Organizers of a professional women’s tournament whose video went viral on social media after a wild-card athlete’s horrific performance have admitted she should not have been allowed to take part.
21-year-old Hayar Abdelkader lost (0:6, 0:6) and made 20 double faults in the match of the first round of the tournament in Nairobi. The video of the match made many viewers wonder if Abdelkader had ever played tennis.
The amateur tennis player won just three points during the 37-minute match – two through double faults on her opponent Lorena Schadel and one through an unforced error by the German, who is ranked 1,026 in the world. The match took place in the tournament of the ITF W35 series and was organized by Tennis Kenya – the national tennis federation of Kenya.
Federation Tennis Kenya said it had contacted Abdelkader and Shadel to provide support “given the scale and nature of the coverage of this match”. According to the organizers, Abdelkader applied to participate as a wild card and got a place at the last minute after another athlete declined.
IN Tennis Kenyaa stated: “She was allowed to maintain the balance of players and countries represented in the tournament, but in retrospect she should not have been allowed to participate. The Federation has taken this incident into consideration and will ensure that such extremely rare situations do not happen again. Tennis Kenya remains committed to the principles of fairness, transparency and integrity in competition and to the development of tennis in Kenya, East Africa and across the continent.”
The Egyptian Tennis Federation confirmed that Abdelkader was never registered as an Egyptian athlete and did not enter the tournament on behalf of Egypt. Technical Director of the Egyptian Tennis Federation Action by Nabil Lutfi:
“We would like to clarify that she is not registered with the Egyptian Tennis Federation and is not included in any of our official player lists. From the available information, it is known that the athlete previously lived in Kenya and participated in the ITF tournament in Nairobi for a wild card provided by the Kenyan Tennis Federation. The Egyptian Tennis Federation was in no way involved, directly or indirectly, in nominating, approving or issuing this wild card, and we were not involved in the athlete’s participation in the tournament.”
The federation also said it had no record of Abdelkader and that she had never been associated with the Egyptian Tennis Federation.
VIDEO. Hayar Abdelkader did not even know how to file: scandal in Nairobi
Hajar Abdelkader entered a low-level tennis tournament in Africa as a wild cardShe might be the single worst athlete we’ve ever seen
pic.twitter.com/pHb6Tzz14m
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) January 7, 2026
This match happened today on W35 Nairobi. The girl’s name is Abdelkadar and she was a wild card holder. Thought somebody had to troll this by buying her WC because she didn’t even know from which side to serve and looked like she played tennis for the 1st time. Won 3 points… pic.twitter.com/3atLq77nwf
— Budy🇨🇿🎾 (@budybet) January 7, 2026
Video recording of the match