- Mohamed Safwat becomes first Egyptian to play at a slam event in more than two decades
- He loses in straights sets to No. 4 seed but picks up $23,000 for his efforts
Mohamed Safwat became the first man from Egypt to play in a Grand Slam tennis tournament’s main draw in 22 years on Sunday — and he got very little notice that chance would come at the French Open.
Safwat got into the field as a “lucky loser,” someone who failed to make it out of the qualifying rounds but is given a berth when another player withdraws. In this case, Victor Troicki pulled out on Sunday because of an injured lower back.
So, the 182nd-ranked Safwat made his Grand Slam debut on Court Philippe Chatrier against No. 4-seeded Grigor Dimitrov. Not surprisingly, Dimitrov won 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (1).
Dimitrov said he only found out he’d be playing Safwat about 20 minutes beforehand.
Safwat was cheered off the court in a rousing ovation. The last Egyptian man to play at a major tournament was Tamer El Sawy at the 1996 US Open.
“I only heard I was playing an hour before the match,” said Safwat. “I was warming up, I signed in as a lucky loser and I was told I might be on court at 11 o’clock. I dealt with it as best I could. I had never set foot on that court before.”
The 27-year-old had lost in the final round of qualifying to Guido Andreozzi of Argentina last week in what was his eighth futile attempt to make the main draw of the majors. A rule change this year has helped the cause of defeated qualifiers at the Slams. If a player withdraws injured before their scheduled first-round match, they still receive half the prize money while the lucky loser takes the other half. Safwat will pick up around $23,000 for his day’s work.
His career earnings of $350,000 pale in comparison to Dimitrov’s $15 million and he has won just one high-profile match in 2018 in the Davis Cup in February.
There was a world of difference between the two men on a sun-kissed center court on Sunday in the first two sets.
But Safwat, one of seven lucky losers in the men’s draw, then overcame blisters on his right hand to put up a solid challenge in the third set before Dimitrov raced through the tiebreaker for a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) win.
Dimitrov next faces either Jared Donaldson of the United States or Chile’s Nicolas Jarry.
Dimitrov was stunned by Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri in Dubai earlier this year, but he wasn’t in the mood to make the same mistake against another unheralded Arab opponent.
“I was warming up and my coach said, ‘hey look’ and we saw up on the board that I was playing a different opponent,” said 27-year-old Dimitrov, a former Wimbledon semifinalist who knew something of Safwat’s game from matches during their junior days.
“I didn’t expect that. I found out about 30 minutes before, but it is what it is. You have to be ready.”