Kareem Al Allaf (كريم العلاف; born March 22, 1998) is an American tennis player and tennis coach of Syrian descent. He holds the all-time wins record for singles and doubles combined in college tennis at the University of Iowa.

Allaf has a career-high ATP singles ranking of 751, achieved on May 22, 2023. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of 704, achieved on August 21, 2023. He was also a doubles champion at the ITF World Tennis Tour in the summer of 2019.

Allaf represented the Syria Davis Cup team at the Davis Cup, where he played #1 singles and had a W/L record of 18–9 (12–5 in singles play) in 2015–21. However, the Syrian Tennis Federation banned him because he competed in a match against an Israeli opponent in a tournament in Arkansas in 2022. Consequently, he switched nationalities to represent his birth country, the United States.

Early life

Allaf was born in Des Moines, Iowa.[1] His father is Syrian.[2] He won one ITF Junior title in singles competition,[3]

College career

Allaf graduated from the University of Iowa in 2020 with a degree in Enterprise Leadership and a minor in Communications, before earning a masters in 2022 in Sports and Recreational Management.[4] He holds the all-time wins record for singles and doubles combined in college tennis at the University of Iowa with 164 combined wins for the Hawkeyes, for whom he played from 2016–21.[4][5][6]

He won 95 career singles matches and 69 career doubles matches.[4] His 22 doubles victories as a sophomore in 2018 are third on Iowa’s single-season wins list, and his 23 singles victories during his freshman year in 2017 tied for the 11th-most in a single season in the university's history.[4] In 2018, Allaf became the third player in program history to win the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Regional Singles Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[4][7] In 2019, he qualified for the ITA Main Draw, and became only the second player from the university to accomplish the feat.[4] In 2020 he was named first-team All-Big Ten, ITA Central Region Senior Player of the Year, and ITA Central Region Most Improved Senior.[8] Allaf earned three All-Big Ten honors.[4]

Professional career

Allaf has a career-high ATP singles ranking of 751, achieved on May 22, 2023. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of 704, achieved on August 21, 2023.[1] He was also a doubles champion at the ITF World Tennis Tour in the summer of 2019.[9]

Davis Cup; ban by Syria

Allaf represented the Syria Davis Cup team at the Davis Cup, where he played #1 singles and had a W/L record of 18–9 (12–5 in singles play) in 2015–21.[10][9][2]

The Syrian Tennis Federation banned him, because he competed in a match against an Israeli opponent in a 2022 ITF Men's World Tennis Tour tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in November 2022.[11][12] Allaf said:

"I respect everyone equally ... Hopefully this doesn't happen again to other athletes from Arab countries .. I think the ITF should get involved in this ... It should never happen again."[13]

Egyptian journalist Reem Abulleil wrote on Twitter: "Syrian tennis player @KareemAllaf played against and defeated Israeli player Nitzan Ricklis last week in a $15k in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As a response, the Syrian Tennis Federation has banned him. Hope @ITFTennis do something. This nonsense has got to stop."[12]

As a result of the Syrian federation's ban, Allaf switched nationalities to represent his birth country, the United States.[12]

Coaching

From 2022–23 he was a volunteer assistant at Mississippi State University.[4] From 2023 to the present he has been a University of Central Florida assistant coach with their UCF Knights tennis team in Orlando, Florida.[4]

See also

  • Malek Jaziri, Tunisian tennis player ordered by the Tunisian tennis federation to withdraw from a match against an Israeli; the ITF consequently barred Tunisia from competing in the 2014 Davis Cup.

References

  1. ^ a b "Kareem Al Allaf," ATP Tour.
  2. ^ a b David Cox (February 17, 2016). "Horror, Redemption, Hope: The story of the Syrian Davis Cup team". Tennis.com.
  3. ^ "Kareem Allaf," Hawkeye Sports.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Kareem Allaf," ucfknights.com.
  5. ^ "Kareem Allaf". University of Iowa Athletics. April 10, 2020.
  6. ^ "Kareem Al Allaf | Overview | Tennis". ATP Tour.
  7. ^ Cody Smith (October 22, 2018). "Iowa men’s tennis junior Kareem Allaf wins ITA Central Regional; Junior Kareem Allaf finished as the last man standing in the 128-man tournament in Oklahoma," The Daily Iowan.
  8. ^ Will Fineman (December 8, 2020). "Iowa men’s tennis trio work to continue their success and leadership," The Daily Iowan.
  9. ^ a b "Kareem Allaf," Hailstate.
  10. ^ "Kareem Al Allaf," Davis Cup.
  11. ^ "Kareem Al Allaf," ATP Tour.
  12. ^ a b c Mitra, Adreej Kumar (November 9, 2022). "Syrian tennis player Kareem Al Allaf banned for playing Israeli opponent at ITF event in Arkansas". Media Referee.
  13. ^ Alex Gruskin (November 30, 2022). "Kareem Allaf: Iowa Men’s Tennis Career-Wins Leader," Cracked Interviews Podcast (audio).
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kareem_Al_Allaf
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