There are hundreds, if not thousands of professional tennis players all over the world, and former Idaho tennis player and current assistant coach Abid Akbar will join them in October as he packs his bags and heads to Turkey.
There are three different levels of professional tennis — Futures, Challengers and the highest level, the Association of Tennis Professionals, which the likes of Rafael Nadal and Rodger Federer compete at. When any potential pro starts, they automatically begin at the Futures level and can start working their way up through the ranks competing in matches and tournaments. This is the level that Akbar will be starting at.
“A lot of people will play Futures and stuff before they come to college,” Akbar said. “I played a couple just for experience when I was 16 and 17 but I didn’t have the right mindset back then, but now I feel like I want to give it a good shot. It should be exciting starting from the bottom.”
After he gets his first few tournaments under his belt in Turkey, Akbar said he would be interested in competing in other countries.
Akbar will support himself once he gets to Turkey, and will have the opportunity to gain sponsorships once he starts competing. But nothing is guaranteed and unlike other sports, players are on their own from hotel tickets to entering in the tournaments, which is a big change after spending five years with the Idaho program.
Akbar will be responsible for all of his expenses so cutting costs wherever possible is nice, he said.
“I will be staying at the hotel where the tournament is being held,” Akbar said. “Staying at the tournament site is very helpful because you don’t have to worry about transportation so it is one less expense.”
Unlike many of the players he will be competing against, Akbar will not have the advantage of experience on the professional level.
“I already have my visa and have entered in two tournaments,” Akbar said.
After finishing his collegiate career in 2013, the Islamabad, Pakistan, native took on an assistant coaching role under former Idaho coach Jeff Beaman. The coaching side has helped him look at how to properly prepare for competitive tennis both physically and mentally, despite not playing much over the last year and a half, he said.
Should the pro career not go as planned, that is something he could always fall back on.
“I am giving it a shot for one year and I’ll see how I do and if I feel like I am doing alright and there’s some potential I might continue … and if not I can fall back on coaching, but honestly I am not thinking about that right now,” Abid said. “Right now I am totally focused on getting in the mindset of playing professional tennis.”
Akbar still remains close with Beaman, who left Idaho over the summer to take a job with the Washington State tennis program, and he credited him for the strides he has made during his collegiate career. To this day, he still works with Beaman who helped convince him to give professional tennis the old “college try.”
Along with Beaman, Akbar also said his father, Mohammad Akbar, who played professionally at Clemson, also gave him the idea initially.
Both Beaman and his family, as well as the Idaho tennis team, have been extremely supportive, he said.
Along with his father, his brother also played collegiate tennis at Charleston Southern in 2001.
Although Akbar never quite became a top-flight collegiate player, he still had a career to be proud of. He was a two-time All-WAC selection, three-time WAC Player of the Month and was a member of the All-WAC Tournament team his senior year in 2013. He also compiled an 85-74 career record as a single player, and an 88-39 record as a doubles player.
Akbar credited Beaman for all the strides he made during his four years as a player. Now, he begins the next portion of his tennis career as he attempts to go pro overseas.
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]