Ismail El Shafei

Ismail El Shafei

Isamil El Shafei (1982)
Country (sports)	Egypt
Residence	Cairo
Born	(1947-11-15) 15 November 1947 (age 74) Cairo
Turned pro	1968 (amateur from 1964)
Retired	March 1983
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Singles
Career record	293–329 (47.1%)[1]
Career titles	6[1]
Highest ranking	No. 34 (8 April 1975)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (1971)
French Open	3R (1969)
Wimbledon	QF (1974)
US Open	4R (1974)
Doubles
Career record	232–216 (Open era)
Career titles	9
Highest ranking	No. 26 (30 August 1977)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1978)
French Open	3R (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978)
Wimbledon	QF (1981)
US Open	4R (1970)

Ismail El Shafei (Arabic: إسماعيل الشافعي) (born 15 November 1947) is a former men's professional tennis player and president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the International Tennis Federation and is chairman of the ITF juniors circuit.^[2] He won six career singles titles and reached eleven finals. In doubles, he won nine career titles.

Career[]

El Shafei played his first tournament in March 1962 at the Egyptian Championships losing in straight sets to Italian player Giuseppe Merlo in the round of 32.^[3] He reached his first tournament final in Ostordorf, West Germany in 1963 before losing to Harald Elschenbroich. In 1964, he won the boys' singles tournament at Wimbledon. He won his first senior's tournament in San Jose, Costa Rica in January 1966. He won the Egyptian Open in Cairo three times (1969, 1974–1974). An adaptable player, he competed on all surfaces, (grass, clay, hard, and carpet). El Shafei is the only Egyptian player to make the top 40 in Grand Prix/ATP ranking history. He is one of only four players to beat Björn Borg at Wimbledon,^[2] knocking him out in the third round in 1974 (the other three were John McEnroe, Roger Taylor and Arthur Ashe.) He reached his last professional singles final (exhibition) at the Cairo Invitational losing to Bjorn Borg in two sets in December 1979 and played his last singles tournament in June 1982 at the Bristol Open losing to then South African player Johan Kriek,^[3] he retired in 1983.

Post playing career[]

Following his playing career El Shafei remained involved in tennis in an administrative role: he was elected president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation on two occasions (1994–96 and 2005–08).^[4] In 1998, he was elected to the board of directors of the International Tennis Federation until 2001. He would serve a second term as director of the ITF (2003–2013).^[4] In September 2015, he was elected for a third term as a director and is currently chairman of coaching and chairman of the juniors circuit.^[4]

Personal[]

He was educated at Cairo University^[4] and is the son of Adli El Shafei and father of Adli El Shafei II.

Career finals[]

Singles (6 titles, 11 runner-ups)[]

Result	No.	Year	Tournament	Location	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1.	Sep 1963		Ostordorf	Clay	Harald Elschenbroich	0–6, 0–6
Win	1.	Jan 1966		San José	Clay		6–2, 6–2, 6–4[5]
Loss	2.	Jan 1967		Kalkutta	Grass	Alex Metreveli	3–6, 6–8, 4–6
Loss	3.	Mar 1967	Egyptian Championships	Cairo	Clay	Jan-Erik Lundqvist	4–6, 4–6, 2–6
Win	2.	Jan 1968		Bremen	Hard (i)	Daniel Contet	6–2, 6–2, 9–7
Loss	4.	Mar 1968	Egyptian Championships	Cairo	Clay	Milan Holecek	6–4, 3–6, 1–6, 2–6
Loss	5.	Mar 1968		Cairo	Clay	François Jauffret	1–6, 2–6, 3–6
Loss	6.	Feb 1969	U.S. National Indoor Championships	Salisbury	Hard (i)	Stan Smith	3–6, 8–6, 4–6, 4–6
Win	3.	Mar 1969	Egyptian Open	Cairo	Clay	István Gulyás	6–2, 6–2, 9–7
Loss	7.	Mar 1969		Alexandria	Clay	István Gulyás	1–6, 6–3, 3–6, 5–7
Loss	8.	Oct 1969	Dewar Cup Perth	Perth	Carpet (i)	Mark Cox	6–3, 12–14, 1–6
Loss	9.	Mar 1971	Egyptian Open	Cairo	Clay	Alex Metreveli	6–8, 9–7, 4–6
Win	4.	Mar 1973	Egyptian Open	Cairo	Clay	Patrick Proisy	6–4, 6–8, 6–3, 6–3
Win	5.	Mar 1974	Egyptian Open	Cairo	Clay	François Jauffret	6–0, 4–6, 6–1, 6–3
Win	6.	Nov 1974	Philippine Open	Manila	Hard	Hans-Jürgen Pohmann	7–6, 6–1[5][6]
Loss	10.	Aug 1975		Brummana	Clay	Nikola Pilic	6–7, 6–3, 6–7, 7–6, 4–6
Loss	11.	Nov 1977	Taipei Summit Championships	Taipei	Hard (i)	Tim Gullikson	6–7, 6–3, 6–7, 7–6, 4–6[7]

Doubles (9 titles)[]

Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
1974	St. Louis WCT, U.S.	Clay	Brian Fairlie	Geoff Masters Ross Case	7–6, 6–7, 7–6
1974	Christchurch, New Zealand	N/A	Roscoe Tanner	Syd Ball Ray Ruffels	w/o
1974	Jakarta, Indonesia	Hard	Roscoe Tanner	Jürgen Fassbender Hans-Jürgen Pohmann	7–5, 6–3
1976	ATP Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Brian Fairlie	Syd Ball Kim Warwick	7–5, 6–7, 7–6
1977	Newport, U.S.	Grass	Brian Fairlie	Tim Gullikson Tom Gullikson	6–7, 6–3, 7–6
1978	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	Brian Fairlie	Lito Álvarez George Hardie	6–3, 7–5, 6–2
1980	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	Tom Okker	Christophe Freyss Bernard Fritz	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
1980	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Colin Dowdeswell	Mark Edmondson Kim Warwick	6–4, 6–4
1981	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	Balázs Taróczy	Paolo Bertolucci Gianni Ocleppo	6–7, 6–3, 6–1

Grand Slam singles performance timeline[]

Won Wimbledon Championship for Boys 1964 & was runner-up in 1963

Davis Cup[]

El Shafei participated in 17 ties for Egypt, where he played 42 matches, winning 23, losing 19 he also served as team captain in the 1980s.^[8]

References[]

External links[]

• Ismail El Shafei at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Ismail El Shafei at the International Tennis Federation