Commitment Profile
Spring Signing Week '16: Alhogbani Chooses the Cavaliers
by Sonny Dearth, 13 April 2016
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If 12th-grader Ammar Alhogbani has his way, soccer won't dominate sports conversation in his homeland of Saudi Arabia. People will be talking about tennis - and his role in it.
Alhogbani and his family live in Alexandria, Va., just more than a two-hour drive from a consistently elite college tennis program. The Five-Star recruit has committed to stay in-state and play for the
Virginia Cavaliers, the reigning NCAA champions, who are seeking their third team crown in four years.
Alhogbani, rated 26th nationally among seniors by the Tennis Recruiting Network, said he's the third-youngest of eight children, and they have gotten used to American life.
"We moved from Saudi Arabia when I was 2, to Ohio," he said. "I grew up playing soccer. ... My dad got us into tennis when I was about 9 or 10."
That turned out to be a great decision, especially when his father got a job at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington. The nation's capital is bordered by the Old Dominion.
Dad got weary of constantly driving to the District of Columbia and then coming back to Ohio for weekends, then going back east.
"When I was like 10, we moved down to Virginia," Alhogbani said. "Tennis has been a lot bigger down here."
Alhogbani said he and his family quickly realized he had an aptitude for the game. He became not only among the best players in the Mid-Atlantic Section, but also got as high as No. 3 nationally in 12-and-under play.
"I practiced at a local club till I was like 14, and then I went to College Park," he said. "It was close by, about a 30-minute drive."
The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., has been a good fit for him. The Maryland organization has a track record of training young professsionals -- Denis Kudla and Francis Tiafoe among them -- and future collegians.
Alhogbani said he has gotten plenty of instruction from Vesa Ponkka, the Senior Director of Tennis, but his primary coach is none other than Scott Brown, the JTCC's Senior Coach and Director of Men's College Recruiting. Brown was an assistant coach for the Cavaliers after he starred for Vanderbilt and played on the ATP Tour.
With all of that background, Alhogbani said, "I haven't really taken an official visit to UVA." He didn't need one.
