The brother of Tunisian tennis star Malek Jaziri on Monday slammed as “shocking” the political pressure to boycott a match with Israel’s Amir Weintraub from the authorities back home.
This decision is “shocking, because it brings politics into sport... We are totally against that and Malek is the first victim, because tennis is his career, his bread-winner,” said Amir Jaziri, who also acts as his brother’s manager.
“To be clear, Malek pulled out for sporting reasons, because he was injured. He did his warm up, something was wrong and the doctor found that his knee was swollen,” he said.
Photo: AFP
When Jaziri withdrew from Friday’s match against Weintraub, in the quarter-finals of the Challenger tournament in Tashkent, he also cited knee problems.
“But at the political level, we received an order not to play. It was an e-mail from the Tunisian Tennis Federation, via the national technical director,” Amir said, detailing the contents of the e-mail.
“‘After the meeting at the ministry of youth and sports with Riadh Azaiez, I regret to inform you that you cannot play,’” he said, quoting the e-mail, and referring to the director of the country’s sporting elite at the ministry.
Both Jaziri and Weintraub are members of the same tennis club in France — Sarcelles Tennis — north of Paris and have known each other for years through their sport.
The club’s president Jonathan Chaouat said Jaziri was in fact the reason for Weintraub’s recruitment by the club.
The 29-year-old Tunisian has declined to talk to the press since withdrawing from the tournament in Tashkent.
The ministry insisted that it had nothing to do with the order instructing him not to play, stressing that the decision came from the tennis federation.
Amir said he did not know whether his brother would have played the match if he had not been suffering from a knee injury. However, he said he failed to understand how such an order could be given after Malek had already played Weintraub and “Tunisia has played Israel in the 2009 Fed Cup.”
“Tennis doesn’t normally get much media coverage in Tunisia. What happened was only done as part of an electoral campaign, and everyone profits [electorally] from this,” Amir Jaziri said.
The country has been locked in a political crisis since the summer due to deadlocked negotiations between the ruling Islamist party and the opposition.
However, parliamentary and presidential elections are expected to take place in the coming months, if the rival factions manage to reach an accord on an interim government.
The political pressure on Malek Jaziri has failed to spark an outcry in Tunisia, with some media actually hailing his decision to concede the match.
“He has lost ATP points [in the world rankings], but won respect and preserved his honor,” Tunisian daily La Presse said.
“History only remembers courageous decisions. Jaziri made the right choice,” it said, describing the player’s knee injury as “diplomatic.”
The Tunisian authorities have never officially banned sporting encounters with Israeli nationals, and since Jaziri’s decision to withdraw from the tennis tournament in Uzbekistan no such directive has been made public.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
RSS