Egypt's Mohamed Safwat defeated in Dubai tennis Championship first round

DUBAI - 24 February 2020: Egyptian tennis player Mohamed Safwat lost his first match in Dubai tennis championship to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber. Safwat won the first set 6-4, but Kohlschreiber fought back to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

"Towards in the middle of the second set, I don't know, I just start to feel little bit pain in my quadriceps. It just was on the serve. The points were okay," Safwat said."But was tough because I think I dropped my percentage on the first serve. I had to play every point. He was pretty comfortable with that. Yeah, it was not nice to do that, but it was good, " He added.

Kolschreiber, who is ranked 80 in the world, said " He's a good guy, improved a lot. Unfortunately I think he injured himself a little bit. Still a little bit in the third set I felt he's still running very well. After I broke him, maybe the injury got too much in his head."

Safwat has managed to win the challenger in Launceston this month, where he defeated Alex Bolt in the final (7-6, 6-1). He became just the second Egyptian to win a Challenger title and first since 1996, when Tamer El Sawy went back-to-back in The Bronx, New York.