ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s longest serving number 1 tennis player Aqqel Khan Friday urged Pakistan Tennis Federation to start work on grass courts on war footings or else Pakistan stands less than 50 percent chance of winning Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-II tie against Hong Kong in April.
Talking to the Nation, Aqeel said Hong Kong have vast experience of playing on hard courts and Pakistan need to ensure the tie must take place on grass courts to take advantage of home ground.
In other case, added Aqeel, Hong Kong would have bright chances of beating Pakistan as Aisam-ul Haq has already made it clear that he would play singles match only on grass courts while he would not be available for single matches on the hard courts. “Aisam agreed to play singles match against Iran on hard court as he was fully fit. He always preferred playing doubles and in case of emergency he played singles after finishing doubles match.”
Aqeel said work on new grass court was not started yet and the PTF should immediately decide the place where grass could be laid down as it is a good season and grass would appear. He revealed that federation have only few days left before confirming to ITF where Pakistan want to host the tie. “Once the surface is final, the ITF will not allow change of surface and as April is not far when the tie would to be played in Islamabad where there is no grass court. The Pakistan Sports Board, as I heard, had allocated land where the federation had to install grass courts, but nothing had been done so far.”
Aqeel said another major area of concern for the federation is that the newly-renovated synthetic courts at Pakistan Sports Complex being under new comers and amateur players use. He feared that if the courts continued to be used by non-professionals and beginners, they would soon lose hardness and would hamper Pakistan Davis Cup team chances.
He asked the federation to ensure the safety of the hard courts as in case of grass courts are not available, which is very much a possibility, then at least Pakistan have hard courts available. “If the courts are not properly managed and not protected from strangers then Pakistan chances would further suffer badly.”
About the other two members of Pakistan Davis Cup team, Abid Ali Akbar and Muhammad Abid Mushtaq, Aqeel said they melted under huge pressure against Iran. He said the both players have the same style of plat the most of Pakistani players adopted and it was lucky that he and Aisam had have different style and different technique, which always provide them success.
He advised the other players to bring changes in their games and techniques and learn how to adopt the conditions.
