Officials Explain How Amateur Tennis Player Scammed Her Way Into A Pro Tournament Before Getting Exposed In Laughably Lopsided Match

Earlier this month, a tennis player at an ITF tournament in Kenya cruised to a spot in the next round with the help of an opponent who had seemingly never picked up a racket before stepping onto the court. Now, we have some more insight into what went down courtesy of organizers who said they were duped by the woman responsible for the embarrassing spectacle.

Brian Scalabrine spent the vast majority of his 11 seasons in the NBA riding the bench while averaging around three points in the 520 games he appeared in. It was a largely unremarkable career, but he was still able to do what most people are not: get paid to play basketball for a living.

In 2025, Scalabrine got called out by an NYC streetballer named George the Messiah and rolled up to a court on West 4th to respond to the challenge before destroying his opponent during a game where he delivered an all-time quote to sum up the talent gap between pro athletes and amateurs, saying, “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me.”

There aren’t a ton of situations where we get to see a pro face off against an Average Joe in a competitive setting, but that’s exactly what happened at a tennis tournament in Kenya that raised plenty of questions that have now been answered by the people overseeing it.

ITF officials say an Egyptian woman lied about her experience to earn a spot in a tournament where she got demolished by a professional player

Last week, the International Tennis Federation held a W35 tournament in Nairobi, Kenya that featured a showdown between Germany’s Lorena Schaedel and a 21-year-old Egyptian woman named Hajar Abdelkader.

Abdelkader earned a spot in the first round of the main draw via a wild card selection, and Schaedel (who was ranked 1,206th in the world at the time) didn’t have much trouble dispatching her with back-to-back 6-0 sets in a showdown that lasted for a grand total of 37 minutes.

To say it was a lopsided match would be the ultimate understatement. Abdelkader only recorded three points (all coming courtesy of errors committed by her opponent) while committing 20 double faults, and a video showcasing her skills (or lack thereof) made it clear she had absolutely no business competing in the tournament in the first place.

According to The Telegraph, ITF officials have provided an explanation for what transpired after the match went viral, with an unidentified official saying she repeatedly emailed them lobbying for a spot in the tournament toward the end of December.

Those pleas were ignored until a Kenyan player who was supposed to compete dropped out, and she provided ” false information about her ranking and her stats” before being tapped as a replacement.

A representative for Tennis Kenya echoed that sentiment in a statement where they said Abdelkader submitted some sort of falsified proof that  “indicated that she had an appropriate level of competitive playing experience,” adding:

“Tennis Kenya acknowledges that this wild card should not have been granted. The federation has taken note of this experience and will ensure that such an extremely rare occurrence never happens again.”

Abdelkader has not been heard from since the match, and an ITF source told the outlet, “We can’t find her and don’t know where she’s gone to.” Schaedel may not have broken a sweat while punching her ticket to the next round, but that was not the case in the 6-4, 6-3 loss to Yufei Ren that brought her tournament to an end.