LAHORE - Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Punjab Asadullah Faiz has announced to conduct the Punjab Open Tennis Tournament 2022 in August here at the state-of-the-art Tennis Stadium, Nishtar Park Sports Complex.
Asadullah Faiz made this announcement on Tuesday during his inspection visit of the Tennis Stadium along with former Davis Cupper and PLTA Secretary General Rashid Malik (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz), Director Sports Nadeem Qaiser, Deputy Director Rauf Bajwa and other officials. The Secretary Sports inspected the courts as well as the stadium and directed to complete the remaining work soon so that the grand tennis event may be conducted at the venue in the end of the next month. “The purpose of holding Punjab Open Tennis Tournament is to provide opportunities to tennis players to exhibit their prowess in the mega event and also earn handsome prize money. Hopefully, top players will compete the event with great enthuisiasm and sportsman spirit and try to win the titles in their respective categories,” he added.
Asadullah also hoped to host the ATF and ITF junior tennis tournaments at the Tennis Stadium. “We are in talks with Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) regarding hosting the first-ever Asian Junior Tennis event at the Tennis Stadium and after that, we will try to host international events here on regular basis, which will help our players improve their games as well as international rankings.”
Speaking on the occasion, PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik thanked Secretary Sports Punjab Asadullah Faiz and Director General Sports Punjab M Tariq Qureshi for taking keen interest in the promotion and development of tennis in Punjab. The Sports Board Punjab’s role in improving sports infrastructure is highly commendable as without better facilities, sportsmen cannot progress at higher level.
“We are especially focusing on junior tennis development because junior players are our real asset and future stars, who will represent the country in ATF, ITF and Grand Slam events and with hard work and dedciation, they will try to win international laurels for Pakistan,” he added.
Malik revealed besides the main five courts at the Tennis Stadium, there are four separate courts for junior players. “I am grateful to Secretary Sports Punjab Asadullah Faiz and DG SBP Tariq Qureshi for establishing separate courts for juniors. The PLTA, in collaboration with Sports Board Punjab, will host ITF’s Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) Program here, where the kids of U-6 to U-12 will be trained.
“Most of our top ranked junior stars are product of the JTI Program and we will continue it at these courts, so that we may find more promising and talented players that will, hopefully, be taken well care by the SBP and they will be provided with better coaching and training that will help them excel at international tennis circuit,” he concluded.
Asadullah Faiz made this announcement on Tuesday during his inspection visit of the Tennis Stadium along with former Davis Cupper and PLTA Secretary General Rashid Malik (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz), Director Sports Nadeem Qaiser, Deputy Director Rauf Bajwa and other officials. The Secretary Sports inspected the courts as well as the stadium and directed to complete the remaining work soon so that the grand tennis event may be conducted at the venue in the end of the next month. “The purpose of holding Punjab Open Tennis Tournament is to provide opportunities to tennis players to exhibit their prowess in the mega event and also earn handsome prize money. Hopefully, top players will compete the event with great enthuisiasm and sportsman spirit and try to win the titles in their respective categories,” he added.
Asadullah also hoped to host the ATF and ITF junior tennis tournaments at the Tennis Stadium. “We are in talks with Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) regarding hosting the first-ever Asian Junior Tennis event at the Tennis Stadium and after that, we will try to host international events here on regular basis, which will help our players improve their games as well as international rankings.”
Speaking on the occasion, PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik thanked Secretary Sports Punjab Asadullah Faiz and Director General Sports Punjab M Tariq Qureshi for taking keen interest in the promotion and development of tennis in Punjab. The Sports Board Punjab’s role in improving sports infrastructure is highly commendable as without better facilities, sportsmen cannot progress at higher level.
“We are especially focusing on junior tennis development because junior players are our real asset and future stars, who will represent the country in ATF, ITF and Grand Slam events and with hard work and dedciation, they will try to win international laurels for Pakistan,” he added.
Malik revealed besides the main five courts at the Tennis Stadium, there are four separate courts for junior players. “I am grateful to Secretary Sports Punjab Asadullah Faiz and DG SBP Tariq Qureshi for establishing separate courts for juniors. The PLTA, in collaboration with Sports Board Punjab, will host ITF’s Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) Program here, where the kids of U-6 to U-12 will be trained.
“Most of our top ranked junior stars are product of the JTI Program and we will continue it at these courts, so that we may find more promising and talented players that will, hopefully, be taken well care by the SBP and they will be provided with better coaching and training that will help them excel at international tennis circuit,” he concluded.
