Mubarak Shannan Zayid of Qatar in action during his match against Guillermmo Garcia Lopez of Spain at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2019 yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar’s Mubarak Shannan Zayid has set for himself a few targets for the new season with an eye of moving up on the ATP ranking ladder.
In the coming months, Zayid aims to increase his workload and is planning to take part in more tournaments to improve his game and reach new heights.
“In the coming months, I will have to work twice as hard compared to the workload which i am doing now. The increase in workload will also help me to get to a much higher level performance wise. I have to also compete in more tournaments, much more than what I’m doing right now,” Zayid told reporters after his match.
Zayid, who was handed a wildcard at the ongoing Qatar ExxonMobil Open lost 6-1, 6-3 to World No. 105 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round match here yesterday.
Zayid was happy that Qatar Tennis Federation gave him the wild card which helped him to take on a much higher ranked opponent in the main draw of the tournament.
“It’s my honour to play in this ATP tournament. It’s a very high level tournament. And I’m very happy that Qatar Tennis Federation gave me this opportunity to play. It wasn’t an easy match for me to play against this guy (Garcia-Lopez). And I knew that I will have to work very hard to get like some games or some points. It was not easy to take any points, I really forced it and got some good points,” Zayid said about his performance.
Zayid said he fancied his chances and the scoreline of three-all in the second set gave him hope at one point in the game but lamented that he could not latch onto the opportunity.
“I think I had the chance to get that game. I made a big mistake, unfortunately. And that is how I lost the game,” he said.
