Mohamed Safwat ( ar, محمد صفوت; born 19 September 1990) is an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Safwat has been a regular player on the

Egypt Davis Cup team The Egypt men's national tennis team represents Egypt in Davis Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Egyptian Tennis Federation. Egypt currently compete in the Europe/Africa Zone of Group II. They reached the semifinals of Group I in ...

since 2009. Safwat has won one singles and three titles in doubles on the ATP Challenger Tour. He is currently the Egyptian No. 1.

Professional career

In 2016, Safwat became the first Egyptian player since 1997 to reach the final of an Challenger tournament when he reached the final in

Kenitra Kenitra ( ar, القُنَيْطَرَة, , , ; ber, ⵇⵏⵉⵟⵔⴰ, Qniṭra; french: Kénitra) is a city in north western Morocco, formerly known as Port Lyautey from 1932 to 1956. It is a port on the Sebou River, Sebou river, has a popul ...

, where he lost to

Maximilian Marterer Maximilian Marterer (born 15 June 1995) is a German tennis player. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 45, achieved in August 2018. Professional career 2015: ATP debut Marterer made his ATP main draw debut at the MercedesCup ...

in straight sets. He also reached the semifinals at the Challenger tournament in Launceston in 2017, eventually losing to

Mitchell Krueger Mitchell Krueger (born January 12, 1994) is an American tennis player. Krueger has a career-high singles ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) of world No. 135, achieved on 18 July 2022. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ...

. In 2018, Safwat beat No. 3 seed and top 100 player Jordan Thompson en route to his second Challenger singles final in

Anning Anning may refer to: Places *Anning, Yunnan (安宁市) city, China *Anning District Anning District () is one of 5 districts of the prefecture-level city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, Northwest China. It forms part of the urban core ...

, where he lost to

Prajnesh Gunneswaran Prajnesh Gunneswaran (born 12 November 1989) is an Indian tennis player. He has won 2 ATP Challenger and 8 ITF titles in singles and 1 ITF title in doubles. He is currently the highest-ranked Indian singles player. He represents India at the Dav ...

. Safwat qualified for his first Grand Slam at the 2018

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

as a lucky loser, where he lost to

Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved o ...

in straight sets. He was the first man from Egypt to play in a Grand Slam tennis tournament's main singles draw in 22 years. In January 2020, Safwat qualified for a Grand Slam main draw for the first time in his career at the 2020 Australian Open by defeating three opponents in the

qualifications Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional expe ...

at Melbourne Park. It made him the first Egyptian since Ismail El Shafei in 1978 to feature in an Australian Open main draw. In February 2020, Safwat won his first singles Challenger title at the Launceston International beating local

Alex Bolt Alex Bolt (born 5 January 1993) is an inactive Australian professional tennis player. His career-high ranking is World No. 125 in singles and World No. 81 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Highlights of Bolt's career ...

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, thereby becoming the first Egyptian to win a Challenger title in singles since

Tamer El-Sawy Tamer El-Sawy ar, تامر الصاوي, born 11 February 1972) is a retired Egyptian tennis player. El-Sawy represented his country in the Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the ...

in 1996 and took him to a career-high of World No. 130 in the ATP rankings on 10 February 2020.

National representation

In 2018, Safwat was part of the Egyptian Davis Cup team to advance to the 3rd round of the Europe/Africa Zone II bracket for the first time since 1996. Safwat made history for Egyptian sport at the

Tokyo Olympic Games Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics * 1964 Summer Olympics * 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021) See also

* Tokyo bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics * Tokyo Paralympics (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

, where he made his debut, as the first Egyptian man to qualify for the Olympics in 2021 after he won the 2019 African Games.

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 45 (25–20)

Doubles: 21 (13–8)

Davis Cup ties played

22 ties played, 17 victories and 10 defeats in the singles ; 7 victories and 4 defeats in the doubles (from 2009 to end of 2018)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Safwat, Mohamed 1990 births Egyptian male tennis players Living people Sportspeople from Cairo Competitors at the 2019 African Games African Games medalists in tennis African Games gold medalists for Egypt African Games silver medalists for Egypt African Games bronze medalists for Egypt Olympic tennis players of Egypt Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics