Lankans to play in Pak tennis event

KARACHI - UBL International Tennis Championship which gets underway here on December 18 at the synthetic courts of Karachi Gymkhana will carry the biggest ever total prize purse of Rs one million. Foreign players mostly from Sri Lanka will also appearing on Pakistani soil for the first time in recent years. The Sri Lankans have specially been invited to play and they were coming here ignoring the security concerns shown by other foreign players to avoid playing in Pakistan. Khawaja Masroor, a senior tennis player of Karachi Gymkhana and tournament director gave details of the competition at a media briefing held at Karachi Gymkhana on Friday afternoon. He said as many as five Sri Lankans, which also include a seeded player, will arrive soon in the city to play in the event. He said the top national players including Aqeel Khan, Jalil Khan, former Davis cupper Hamidul Haq and Rashid Malik have already confirmed their participation. The final list of the players who will appear here would be finalised before the start of the competition, he added Those who attended the media briefing were Saeed Ahmed of International Club and VP of Sindh Tennis Association, Ali Rahim, president Karachi Gymkhana, Raza Mirza president newly formed Sindh Tennis Players Association and his secretary Imran Ahmed, Anita Mirza SVP head corporate communications and public relations and Arif Qureshi white badge referee who along with Shahzad Alvi has specially been sent here from Islamabad to look after the technical side of the championship. Khawaja Masroor who is also the founding member of the STPA in his brief opening remarks thanked UBL for sponsoring tennis which he said was essential to promote the sport. Raza Mirza, the president of the STPA said the new body had been launched because it was felt that the sports were being neglected in Karachi which was once a major tennis centre. The STPA he said would stress in promoting the sport at grass root level. Saeed Ahmed said PTF president Kaleem Imam had asked him to attend the media briefing on behalf of the federation. The PTF had approached the UBL for sponsoring the event removing the perception that it was STPA that attracted UBL to fund the event but as the STPA was an unrecognized body, the event was given to the PTF and the STA to hold the event, he said. However except for Saeed Ahmed no other office bearers of the STA were present at the briefing. He however added the STPA would be involved in the nitty gritty of the organistion while the PTF representative would be responsible for the technical aspect.