Ali Thameem
At midnight on Thursday, the Maldives national tennis team landed in Amman, Jordan, to participate in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers. They had no idea that, within hours of their arrival, Jordan would be in the midst of a raging war zone.
On Friday morning, the Maldivian tennis contingent woke up to the news that Jordan had shut down its airspace after the Zionist Israeli regime launched an unprovoked assault on Iran.
The national team players, Nayara Usama Ali, Aara Aasaal Azim, Naba Nishan, and Aishath Karin Saizan, were participating in Event B of the Asia/Oceania nominations for the BJK Cup. The games were scheduled to start on Monday.
The International Tennis Federation ITF ordered an indefinite halt to the tournament. With that, the four tennis players from the Maldives, for the past five days, have been stranded in Amman with their coach and three of the parents.
Sidibari has spoken to Dr. Usama Ali Umer, one of the parents who travelled with the team.
“We travelled four days ahead, hoping the kids could get to acclimate to the weather and get some practice on the court,” says Usama. Although the tournament is cancelled, the players would later get to practice during the daytime – Jordanian Tennis Federation had contacted ITF and got approval to reopen the courts on Saturday.
On hearing the news that flights were resuming on Saturday, Usama headed to the Royal Jordanian offices with copies of everyone’s passports. After the initial bookings got cancelled, the Arabic-speaking parent eventually talked his way into securing seats on a flight to Dubai for next Friday. He arranged the itinerary so as for the Maldivian tennis team’s coach, an Iranian, to travel via Turkey to Male’.
The parents then contacted the Foreign Ministry of Maldives, which provided little to no help. “We got nothing but a sense of indifference from the Ministry”.
But upon reaching out to Ahmed Thamooh Saeed, the Secretary General of Maldives Olympic Committee, the parents were relieved by the assurance and help they received. He immediately arranged to reimburse the ticket prices via the Tennis Association of Maldives.
“We are thankful for Thamoo and the assistance he is giving us” says another parent. “Should the flight on the 20th get cancelled, Thamoo is working on for us to take alternative routes back home”.
“We were losing hope. The kids, they were confused; they did not understand what was happening (when the sirens blew), until they saw missiles in the sky.”
They almost thought no one is gonna help us return back home (to Maldives) – That there will be no chance of leaving Jordan” says Usama. “Because honestly, no one knows if, or when, Jordan might have to shut it all out”. As of right now, Royal Jordanian flights resumed operations, but only in the daytime, and they hope to return back to Male’ by Saturday.
According to the parents, a debris from one of the missiles fell to the ground not too far from the hotel they were staying at – on Monday, Al Jazeera reported “Amman said the Jordanian military had intercepted some ballistic missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace”.
According to Usama, the morale is high among the players, despite all that has happened since they landed in Amman. “As for us, the parents, it would have been much difficult to cope alone.. but we are with the players” he says, emphasizing how resilient and mature the tennis players are for their age “After all, they are the future of Maldivian Tennis”, he says.
