‘Development at grass roots only way forward’

Tennis veteran Jalil intends to open academy; wants PTF to develop less resourceful players

KARACHI: Former Pakistan number two Jalil Khan believes that players who hail from humble backgrounds tend to be more passionate and the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) should do more to spread the sport at the grass roots.

Recently, 13-year-old Samad Areejo, who started off as a ball-boy and was discovered and trained by Jalil, caught the eye with some spectacular performances at the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) U14 Super Series in Islamabad last month and Jalil believes there are million more players in Pakistan just waiting to be discovered.

“There has been a big gap in tennis with the less resourceful being dragged away from the game,” said Jalil. “I’m working with Areejo and other juniors players like him because they have the most potential and at the same time they are the ones who’ll continue this sport. Aqeel Khan, Shahzad Khan, Mohammad Abid and I have all come from very humble backgrounds and it is us who have carried this sport.”



Jalil further added that the PTF needs to invest more in the development of tennis at the grass roots as the general populace has no access to training facilities, tennis courts, tennis equipment, etc.

“The difference between Pakistan and other developed countries is the quality and number of facilities afforded to the players. In Pakistan we don’t have many facilities hence potentially great athletes never get a chance to test their skills,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ajeero, who started playing tennis when he was eight, wants to emulate current world number one Novak Djokovic and believes he and the Serb have a lot of similarities.

“Right now I only want to focus on playing tennis. I’m not studying much at the moment, but I want to become like Djokovic,” said Areejo. “I used to watch all his videos and tried to imitate his style. I think I’m getting better at it now.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th,  2016.

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