Deedat excited about Malaysian Open debut

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PETALING JAYA: With the Malaysian Open ATP 250 tennis championship set to begin this weekend, Malaysian youngster Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak can hardly contain his excitement as he will be making his debut in one of the biggest tennis competition in Asia.

The 16-year-old Deedat is one of three Malaysian players who have been given the local wildcard entry for the qualifying round of the singles event, the others being national No. 1 Si Yew Ming and Ariez Elyaas Deen Heshaam.

Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak

For the little known Deedat, the chance to play in the Malaysian Open may come as a pleasant surprise to him but in truth his inclusion in the tournament is just reward for his hard work and good performance.

The lanky Deedat dished out stellar performances for Malaysia in the junior and men’s Davis Cup tournaments and has been touted as the rising star of Malaysian tennis.

He was also once ranked as high as third in the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) Under-14 circuit.

“I am really excited at the chance to play because this is my first time participating in an ATP event,” said Deedat who idolised former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero while growing up.

“I picked up tennis when I was just eight years old, playing for fun with my dad and I’ve found it to be very interesting indeed.”

“After that I slowly got more serious in the sport and I hope to continue playing tennis for a long time to come.”

“There isn’t really a target for me in the Malaysian Open as I’m just happy to play.”

“Hopefully I’ll be able to hold my serve against my opponent as that should be the easiest thing to do and play well,” added Deedat.

The Malaysian Open is one of only five World Tour stops in Asia and carries a total prize money of US$947,750 (RM2.9 mil). It will feature a 28-player singles main draw and 16 doubles pairs with the qualifying round for singles starting this Saturday.

Defending champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia will be back in action and the other top stars include world No. 9 Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, world No. 12 Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Serbians Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki.

Tickets are on sale for as low as RM10 with an Ipad 2 to be given out every day for lucky fans in the catch-the-ball promotion.