It might have been a tennis match that went unnoticed. Rather, it became viral on the internet right away.
Although the first round of the International Tennis Federation’s W35 competition, which took place on a clay court in Nairobi, Kenya, wouldn’t typically garner much attention in the tennis community, millions of people have now witnessed what happened over the course of 37 agonizing minutes in the nation’s capital.
Lorena Schaedel of Germany won the match 6-0, but the performance of her opponent, 21-year-old Egyptian Hajar Abdelkader, in what appeared to be her professional debut, was noteworthy. However, it appeared to be her first time standing on a tennis court, as some social media commentators have noted.
There are now new revelations about how Abdelkader ended up at the mercy of tennis commentators worldwide and completely out of her element in a professional competition. Tennis Kenya confirmed in a statement to CNN Sports that Abdelkader had been accepted into the competition as a wild card, which is effectively an invitation to a tournament that does not need qualifying for the main draw or earning a spot through the rankings system.
