Mohammed Ghareeb (born July 22, 1980) is a tennis player from

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

. He plays right-handed with a

single-handed backhand The backhand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and pickleball, where the back of the hand precedes the palm when swinging the racket. Except in the phrase ''backhand volley'', the term refers to a groundstro ...

Career

Unranked in singles as of February 2018, with a career-high ranking of No. 336 in 2006. In August 2016, Al Ghareeb was Kuwait's second ranked tennis player. He played a competitive match against world No. 1

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

in the second round of the 2006

Dubai Tennis Championships The Dubai Tennis Championships (also known as the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for sponsorship reasons) (formerly known for sponsorship reasons as the ''Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships'' and the ''Dubai Duty Free Men's and Women's Champ ...

, though he lost in straight sets. Ranked No. 488 at the time of the match, Ghareeb was expected to offer little resistance to Federer, but in a surprisingly competitive match, Al Ghareeb led 5–3 in the first set, and 3–2 in the second, before succumbing 7–6, 6–4. According to Federer, Al Ghareeb was "definitely the better player and I think only my experience helped me get through." Al Ghareeb did not make a significant breakthrough at a top-level event, though in the 2007

he won a set from Top 10 player

Tomáš Berdych Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in May 2015. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, i ...

before losing 3–6, 6–3, 6–2. Al Ghareeb again received a wild-card to Dubai in 2008, losing 6–4, 6–0 in the first round to the fifth seed

Nikolay Davydenko Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( ; born 2 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 in November 2006. Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tournam ...

. Once again, he received a wild card in 2009, losing 7–5, 4–6, 4–6 in the first round to third seed

Gilles Simon Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former tennis player. He turned professional in 2002 and won fourteen singles titles on the ATP Tour, and attained a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 6, on 5 January 2009. Personal li ...

. Simon praised his opponent's play and expressed surprise at his low ranking, saying that Al Ghareeb "has a strange ranking, 400 or so, with his game, it's just unbelievable." In 2007, he led the Kuwaiti team in its most successful Davis Cup season, reaching the Asia/Oceania Group II final with victories over

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, before losing the division championship match to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in a 0–5 sweep. As of February 2018, Ghareeb had a 67–31 record in

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

play for Kuwait (50-13 in singles), and was its longest-standing member.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 10 (5–5)

Doubles: 19 (12–7)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghareeb, Mohammed 1980 births Kuwaiti male tennis players Living people Tennis players at the 1998 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Kuwait Islamic Solidarity Games medalists in tennis Islamic Solidarity Games silver medalists for Kuwait Arab Games gold medalists Arab Games silver medalists