Al-Ahram Weekly | Sports

		10 - 16 October 2002 Issue No. 607 Sports	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Made in Egypt
Russia's Nadia Petrova blew a surprise last week when she beat former world champion Martina Hingis at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Al-Ahram Weekly reveals the real story of the Egyptian bred Petrova

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Petrova with her coach Seif
In the summer of 1994, Egyptian tennis coach Mohamed Seif happened to venture to the Olympic Centre in Maadi with his two tennis-playing daughters. There, he met with athletic coach, Ahmed El-Khadem -- who introduced him to Victor and Nadia Elina Petrova, the former Russian Olympic champions in track and field. Victor was training the national team in the hammer throw and shot put. His wife, and daughter, 12- year-old Nadia, were paying him a 15-day visit.
"Captain El-Khadem asked me to train little Nadia who was a national champion and a promising tennis talent," Seif told Al-Ahram Weekly's Inas Mazhar . "I agreed, and for 15 days I trained her at the Maadi club. Her parents liked the programme I arranged for her and watched her skills in forehand, backhand and serves improve during the 15 days."
He recalls that the Russian family knew no other language other than the Russian so they always needed an interpreter. "They had Russian friends living in Maadi," he said of their interpreter-acting friends.
The two-week trip prolonged itself, and Nadia and her mother never returned home. Instead, they opted to settle in Cairo and encourage Nadia to train.
"Her parents asked me officially to train Nadia and to sign a contract with me. They offered me LE2000 as a monthly salary which wasn't enough but I agreed because the girl was talented and I believed in her skills and her promising future," Seif says. "Actually, I considered myself lucky to train such a talent who would one day become a world champion and compete against famous names as Hingis, Williams, Kournikova and Dokic."
In 1995, Seif promised to lead little Nadia to world fame.
"I started working with Nadia," he says. "She needed a lot of work to improve her footwork, volleys and drop shots. She joined the Maadi club and started practicing day and night."
Things seemed bright, until one month later, when Nadia's mother and her interpreter friend called Seif and invited him for dinner.
"At dinner, she surprised me when she told me that they would have to go back to their country because they couldn't afford the tennis expenses," he says. "Her father earned LE3000 from the athletic federation , they paid me LE2000 and so they couldn't afford to live with only LE1000 in Egypt."
It was a slightly tough decision given that it ultimately boils down to business, but Seif compromised and reduced his salary to LE1000 -- on the condition that he would be refunded when Nadia reached international glory.
Four months later, Nadia started playing national competitions. Sometimes she won and sometimes lost. All-in-all however, her play was promising.
"I arranged for a friendly game with Ahli's champion Marwa Elwani," Seif says. "The match was officiated by Ahli's coach Khaled Farouk. I had challenged them with Nadia, but surprisingly, Nadia lost to Marwa 2/0."
The loss came as a surprise and disappointment, but together the duo were determined to turn the tables around.
After that game there was a dispute between Seif and Nadia's parents -- they blamed him for the loss. "I threatened to cancel the contract and demanded that they shouldn't interfere in my work with Nadia and that we still have a long way to go so they have to be patient," Seif said.
Nadia and Seif resumed training, and she continued to compete in local tournaments. She proved herself, beating Egyptian champion Yasmine Qabil at the national Shooting Club tournament.
"I was glad because Nadia proved to be a fighter. She displayed a good performance throughout the tournament. So were her parents," Seif said.
Nadia continued her winning streak, knocking down all the national champions on her way to successive national title wins.
The two continued to work hard together, and received both praise and animosity. It came from the family too.
"My pampering to Petrova after each championship she won and the gifts I bought her made my family very jealous as well," Seif said.
The tension increased, and Seif started to rethink his coaching decision.
"It was when my daughters displayed talent at national championships that I felt I should have given my daughters all my effort, experience and time," he recalls. "That was when I decided to quit training Nadia and start a new job with my daughters."
And so he did. And while his daughters have not quite moved up in the way that Petrova did, Seif does not regret the move. He is proud of his daughters, and proud of Petrova. After leaving Seif, Nadia turned pro and won the 1998 Roland Garros juniors championship, beating the current world number four Elina Dokic of Yugoslavia 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Nadia, who left Cairo only last year, climbed the global ranks fast. Unfortunately, she was injured in Sydney's championship last January during a clash against Venus Williams, after which she retired in the second set. Her return came just last week in the Kremlin Cup, when she beat the famous Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-2 -- spoiling Hingis's birthday bash.
Although Egypt does not have its own sparkling talents, in a way, Nadia's success is like that of one of Egypt's own. She may not be Egyptian born, but she was certainly Egyptian bred.

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