{"id":116397,"date":"2025-08-03T19:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116397\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:53:11","slug":"he-is-the-best-tennis-player-in-the-history-of-his-country-but-they-are-the-lowest-ranked-team-in-the-davis-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116397\/","title":{"rendered":"He is the best tennis player in the history of his country but they are the lowest-ranked team in the Davis Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most players dream of becoming the greatest player in the history of their country, but few accomplish such a feat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer<\/a>, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, all have the distinction of being recognized as the best their nation has ever produced.<\/p>\n

Proudly representing their countries, all three players won the Davis Cup<\/a> during their careers (Nadal\/Spain \u2013 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2019, Djokovic\/Serbia \u2013 2010, Federer\/Switzerland \u2013 2014).<\/p>\n

\"RafaelPhoto by Europa Press Entertainment\/Europa Press via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Davis Cup, known by some as the \u2018World Cup of Tennis\u2019, features the very best players from their respective nations, battling it out for glory.<\/p>\n

At the top of the rankings, Jannik Sinner and Italy have won the previous two Davis Cup titles<\/a> and are well-known to fans around the world, but what about the team at the bottom of the table?<\/p>\n

Ranked 160th and last, a team from North Africa are determined to make a move in the right direction, and look well-placed to do just that, led by the greatest player in the history of their country.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Mouhan: The \u2018best player in Libyan tennis history\u2019 looking to move his country out of last place<\/p>\n

In the official Davis Cup rankings, Libya sit 160th of 160 teams, behind the likes of Djibouti, Seychelles, and Tajikistan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to The Tennis Gazette,<\/strong> Libya\u2019s star man, Ahmed Mouhan, gave his verdict on the nation\u2019s lowly ranking.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, to be in the bottom of the rankings is very bad, that brings a lot of negative energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players, when they went with me to the Davis Cup this year, they were thinking \u2018Oh, we are in the bottom, we are the last one, most of the other teams will speak about us, we are in the bottom.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be bottom of the rankings, that\u2019s very bad mentally, and very bad for the draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not letting their ranking affect their performances, Libya won two ties in \u2018Africa Group V\u2019 this year, having only won one previous tie, back in 2017.<\/p>\n\nDate<\/strong><\/td>\nOpponent<\/strong><\/td>\nResult<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSaturday, July 26, 2025<\/td>\nSudan<\/td>\nWin <\/td>\n3-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFriday, July 25, 2025<\/td>\nCongo<\/td>\nWin<\/td>\n3-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nThursday, July 24, 2025<\/td>\nEthiopia<\/td>\nLoss<\/td>\n1-2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWednesday, July 23, 2025<\/td>\nBotswana<\/td>\nLoss<\/td>\n0-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Libya\u2019s record at the 2025 Davis Cup<\/p>\n

Mouhan was integral in Libya\u2019s wins over Congo and Sudan, competing in four of the six matches, going unbeaten in singles and doubles.<\/p>\n

Securing those two wins, Mouhan believes Libya won\u2019t be the lowest-ranked team in the world for long.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results that we did this year, I think next year we won\u2019t be in the bottom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pushing from now to be ready for the next year, to qualify to be in group four, and I\u2019m sure we are going to make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working hard, the players were very motivated to work hard, and promised to be disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old is determined to lead his country up the rankings and isn\u2019t afraid of taking on the responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the best player in tennis history in Libya, which is good for me,\u201d said Mouhan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the only Libyan tennis player who has an ATP<\/a> ranking, ITF ranking. I\u2019m pushing myself to be very good, to make a good career for Libyan tennis.<\/p>\n

\"ThePhoto by KARIM SAHIB\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to make the kids try to do much better, to see me as a champ or something like this. I\u2019m a bit famous here in Libya.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to stop until I\u2019ve found a very good generation. I don\u2019t want to be the only Libyan player who did this. I want to take my country far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world number 2,039 has personal ambitions of becoming a top-500 player, making a step up to the Challenger Tour, but is more focused on growing the sport of tennis in his country.<\/p>\n

With Mouhan leading the way, the future looks bright for Libya, although there are still plenty of obstacles in their way.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Mouhan says the Davis Cup referees \u2018don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing\u2019<\/p>\n

Making the trip to Botswana for Libya\u2019s four Davis Cup ties last month, Mouhan encountered several issues while playing the top-ranked team in \u2018Group V\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to play Botswana, especially because they\u2019re the country hosting the tournament; also, the crowd there was a bit loud and bad, making trouble with the refs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Tripoli native was far from impressed with the standard of refereeing at the Davis Cup, admitting he had to explain the rules of tennis to the officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watched my match, you would laugh,\u201d said Mouhan.<\/p>\n

\"APhoto by Oscar J. Barroso \/ AFP7 \/ Europa Press Sports via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe refs there, they need to learn a lot\u2026 I was discussing with them the rules, they don\u2019t know what they are doing to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mouhan also had to contend with the rowdy crowd in Botswana, who were cheering every mistake he made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd, when I was playing against Botswana, if I did a double fault, or something, they were supporting really bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were against me, I didn\u2019t like the crowd there, they were not supporting, it was not fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I was winning, I was doing something that was making them more loud, more crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Libya lost all three matches against Botswana, who finished top of \u2018Group V\u2019, qualifying for \u2018Group IV\u2019 in 2026.<\/p>\n

Mouhan believes similar success is on the horizon for Libya, although it remains to be seen if their greatest-ever player can guide them to \u2018Group V\u2019 glory.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a long road ahead for Libya and Mouhan, but with the team determined to lift themselves off the bottom of the rankings, there\u2019s surely no limit to what they can achieve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most players dream of becoming the greatest player in the history of their country, but few accomplish such…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[72887,1479,2342,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-116397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ahmed-mouhan","9":"tag-atp","10":"tag-davis-cup","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114966587304706783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}