SHELBAYEH TAKES ARAB CROWN

Rising tennis star Abdullah Shelbayeh has won the Arab Elite Championship, hosted by Kuwait at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah International Tennis Complex.
Featuring 23 of the best ranked Arab players, the 19-year-old beat Lebanon’s Benjamin Hassan, who is ranked 303 in the world, in the final.
Shelbayeh, who is ranked 470, lost the first set 6-4, but fought back to win the second and third sets 6-4 and 10-8 to take the crown.
The victory earned him the right to play at the 250-point Qatar ExxonMobil Open, which will be held from February 20-26 next year.
Shelbayeh had earlier won five matches to top his group and then beat Egyptian Karim Mohamed in the quarter final before overcoming Tunisian Aziz Doqaz in the last four.
Shelbayeh then teamed up with Musa Al-Qutb to finish runners-up in the double competition, losing the final to Tunisia’s Aziz Douqaz and Iskandar Mansouri.