Rain can't dampen Hady Habib's mood as Lebanese attempts to qualify for Wimbledon
Lebanese tennis player Hady Habib's first experience of playing on grass in England was about as stereotypical as it gets.
In preparation for his first crack at Wimbledon qualifying this week, the 26-year-old took part in a Challenger tournament in Ilkley, a leafy spa town some 300km north-west of London, where the fabled Grand Slam takes place from June 30-July 13.
Due to bad weather, Habib played a two-hour, three-set match split across two days. He clocked a whopping 27 aces but lost the match. He won two matches in doubles before losing in the semi-finals.
For Habib, it was a new adventure.
'The first two days that I got here, I only got an hour and a half of practice because it was raining. And something I didn't know on grass is when it rains, it kind of affects it for a while because you can't play on wet grass,' Habib told The National in an interview over Zoom from Ilkley.
'Some courts are covered, but the practice courts aren't. So even after they stopped my match, because my match took two days, before I stepped on to play the third set [the following day], I almost wasn't even going to warm up. They were going to give us a 10-minute warm-up.
'But I managed to squeeze a warm-up in because the practice courts dried. It's a new experience for me. You hear about the rain delays in Wimbledon and how it's just always raining there.
'It's so sensitive. During our match, it started to drizzle, and then we both started slipping and sliding everywhere. I looked at the ref, I'm like, 'Is this a slip and slide now or what?''
During our match, it started to drizzle, and then we both started slipping and sliding everywhere. I looked at the ref, I'm like, 'Is this a slip and slide now or what?'
Hady Habib
Rain showers aside, Habib says he enjoyed his first outing on grass at Ilkley and was encouraged by his first experience on the surface.
'It's pretty nice to just see a field of grass courts. You're out in the nature, and there's greenery all around,' he added.
'Going to my first hit, I didn't know what to expect, because I've never played on a real grass court in my life. The closest thing I've actually played on was synthetic grass, but it's not even close to a real grass court.
'But yeah, for my first hits, I just noticed how fast the ball was coming at me, because on grass, the ball skids off the court, so I just had to adjust to that while I was practising.'
In Ilkley, Habib fell 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 to 19-year-old Spaniard Martin Landaluce.
'Unfortunately, I lost, but it was a good experience for me, learning to adapt. You just have to stay lower to the ground because the balls are just not bouncing as high. It was fun. I really enjoyed playing on grass. I think it suits my game. The last match, I hit about 27 aces, which is just pretty not normal,' said Habib.
'That's why I think my game would suit grass. I serve well, I kind of hit my spots. And if you hit your spots on grass, and you have good power on the serve, you know, you feel like the best servers do so well on grass court, and now I understand why. Because it's so fast, it's really almost impossible to return.
'So, yeah, there's been a few adjustments I need to make. And I hope this is going to prepare me the best for Wimbledon.'
Habib is riding the crest of a wave after securing a first Challenger title at the end of last season. A historic run at the Australian Open earlier this year – where he became the first Lebanese in the Open Era to qualify for a Grand Slam and to win a main draw match in singles – his ranking is now high enough to get him into the qualifying rounds of some of the biggest tournaments in the world, including Wimbledon.
The tennis tour makes an abrupt switch from clay to grass after the French Open each June, with just three weeks separating Roland Garros from Wimbledon.
The grass swing is short, and features a limited number of tournaments at both the ATP and Challenger levels. Those events can be difficult to get into, and if a player's ranking isn't high enough to at least make it into the Wimbledon qualifying draw, the logical option is to skip the grass season altogether and instead choose to play on clay or hard courts.
That has been the case for Habib the past few years; but this season is different.
Ranked 163 in the world and rising, Habib has a reason to lace up his grass-court shoes, with an opportunity to fight for a main draw spot at Wimbledon on the line.
To make it to the All England Club, he must win three qualifying rounds at the Community Sport Centre Roehampton, the host venue for Wimbledon's qualifying tournament.
'Someone told me the other day that I'm not going to be actually playing at Wimbledon. I was like, 'Oh, what a bummer'. I didn't know qualifying was somewhere else.'
Many players have said the fact that the qualifying rounds are played at a location that is a 15-minute drive away from the All England Club provides even extra motivation for them to qualify, in order to gain access to the hallowed lawns at SW19.
'It's going to be the Hunger Games over there,' joked Habib.
This time last year, Habib was competing in a series of Challenger Tour events on clay in South America.
In 2025, he got to play at tournaments he had only previously watched on TV, like the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Indian Wells, Miami, Doha and Dubai.
'Whenever you're doing something for the first time, you're just kind of learning new things. It was different for me, playing last year tournaments that are not even close to these. So being able to compete at these events, seeing all these top 50 players around you, it's a new thing. And you can learn a lot from those experiences,' he explained.
'And of course, those events, the matches are bigger. You play for bigger points, more prize money. So there's a lot more on the line. And that's something also you need to learn how to manage and deal with.
'So it's a process. And I'm still, it being my first time, I'm still trying to use this experience and get better each time I play these big events.'
Wimbledon qualifying will take place from Monday June 23 to Thursday June 26 and will feature three men representing Arab countries: Lebanese duo Habib and Benjamin Hassan, as well as Tunisia's Aziz Dougaz.
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