WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is Lebanon.

Top ATP player: Hady Habib
Rank: 761 (as of 16/03/2020)
Age: 21
Points: 22
Tournaments played: 10

Born in Texas and still residing in the state, the top Lebanese player in Hady Habib is still only 21-years-old. A good size at 188cm and sporting a two-handed backhand, the 761st ranked player has a career-high ranking of 609th in the world. That was almost 18 months ago, with his career plateauing for the time being, and the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed his return too. His only match in 2020 was a three-set loss to 497th ranked Brandon Holt in the Los Angeles in the 25K event.

Last year he made back-to-back quarter finals in his home state playing at Waco in the 25K event, and Austin in the 15K event before falling to higher ranked players on both occasions. Taking part in the Davis Cup, he played two singles – but lost both during Lebanon’s loss to Uzbekistan last September. It was a part of the five-game losing streak after a promising run at Decatur in Illinois, where he reached the semi-finals in August. It has been a couple of years since he played in his represented nation, making back-to-back quarter finals in September and October in 2018. Over the past two years he has remained in the United States or Mexico travelling on the ITF Tour and generally makes the last eight of tournaments when on song.

Other notable Lebanon ATP players: Giovani Samaha (#997)

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Top WTA player: Nil.

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Summary:

There are not a great deal of Lebanese tennis players running around on the ATP and WTA Tours with just the two male players currently touring. Habib still has plenty of years left in his career, and if the players can return sooner rather than later, he might be able to build up his points on the American hard court circuit later in the year.