Safwat and Sherif ready to break new ground for Egypt
The wait for Tokyo 2020 is finally over and for Egyptian duo Mohamed Safwat and Mayar Sherif, the anticipation for these Olympics has been building for the past two years, ever since they secured their qualification spots at the African Games in Rabat in the summer of 2019.
Egypt will be represented in tennis at the Olympics for the first time in history, thanks to Safwat and Sherif’s gold medal-winning exploits in the Moroccan capital, and the pair have landed in Tokyo as part of their nation’s largest-ever delegation to the Games.
“Finally we are here,” Safwat told itftennis.com upon his arrival to Japan.
“It’s been on hold for a while now. I can’t really say if I would have preferred to play the Olympics last year or not because you never really know what would have happened, even though I was playing well at the time.”
Safwat, who has been Egypt’s top men’s player for over a decade and is currently the highest-ranked Arab man at 171 in the world, was playing the best tennis of his life when the tennis tour was suspended due to the pandemic in March last year. He had just picked up his first Challenger title and peaked at 130 in the ATP rankings.
After nearly a year of navigating life on tour mid-pandemic, dealing with lockdown and training in less than ideal conditions back home, Safwat feels he has rediscovered his form and is hoping that can translate into a decent showing at his maiden Olympics.
“In my journey since qualification two years ago, I learned a lot,” said the 30-year-old, who believes punching his ticket to Tokyo unlocked something special within him.
“It was ups and downs, I think it was more down than up, in terms of results. But I’m looking at the bigger picture; I think a lot of things have changed in me. I see it and I feel it. Maybe not many people can see it the way the people who work with me can see it. But I feel things will turn much better soon, way better than I expect.”
The Olympics have been Safwat’s main target ever since he qualified and he has been doing everything possible to improve his level in order to be competitive against the world’s best players in Tokyo.
“I don’t want to just come to the Olympics, spend a couple of days and leave. I really want to do something,” he declared, after enduring a long trip from the Netherlands – where he was playing a Challenger – to Cairo and finally to Tokyo. He has a demanding few weeks ahead of him as he has Davis Cup after the Olympics before heading to New York for the US Open.
Both Safwat and Sherif are responsible for the surge in tennis’ popularity back in Egypt and their participation at the Olympics will give them a much wider platform and a greater opportunity to inspire.
Despite the tennis competition kicking off the day after the opening ceremony, Safwat is keen to join his compatriots during the proceedings at the Japan National Stadium on Friday.
“I will walk of course, it’s an honour, I wouldn’t be happy to skip it,” said Safwat, who hopes to catch some of the modern pentathlon and handball action to support his Egyptian team-mates if the rules allow it.
“I had to skip it during the African Games when I qualified for Tokyo. I was supposed to hold the flag in the closing ceremony but I was playing a match at the time. So I’ll make sure to be there this time.”
Meanwhile, an ambitious Sherif has high hopes for her Olympic debut.
The 25-year-old Cairene made the most of the time she gained when the Games got postponed and worked hard to develop her craft and rise through the ranks. She landed in Tokyo on Tuesday perched nicely at 118 in the world – just four spots off her career-high ranking – and is coming off a final showing at a W60 event in Montpellier and a quarter-final appearance at a WTA 125 series tournament in Bastad.
“I’m trying as much as possible to reach the highest level possible until I get to the Olympics,” the Pepperdine graduate had said at the start of the 2021 season.
“I think it came to my favour that the Olympics got postponed by a year. Because if you compare how I was at the start of last year, and how I was at the end of it, I was a very different player.
“So one year would give me so much. So I want to get my best out of the next six months so I can be ready for the Olympics; and God willing, if I do well, it would be a dream to get a medal.”
Sherif has been on a history-making roll over the past year. Not only is she Egypt’s highest-ranked woman ever, she also became the first woman from her nation to qualify for a Grand Slam (at Roland Garros 2020) and to win a main draw match at a major (at Australian Open 2021).
Her achievements have seen Sherif shoot to fame back in Egypt, appearing on the country’s biggest talk shows and signing up a host of sponsorship deals with an impressive list of backers. It took her some time to adjust to her new national-hero status and by now, she has fully embraced it and is raring to go even further.
“I feel like mentally, now, I’m much calmer than I was at the start of the year,” she said during Wimbledon qualifying last month.
“I think I had some anxiety at the beginning of the year, I didn’t handle all what’s happening to me very well but now I feel like by the time Tokyo comes around, I will be hitting my peak.
“I’m feeling my tennis much better, I’m feeling physically much better, recovering from Covid. I’m so excited to play and I feel from the inside that it’s coming.
“I’m going to wait for it and it’s coming. Internally I’m so happy with myself and I think it’s going to come. I feel the next few weeks will be very important for me.”