Davis Cup: Rain-delay gives Pakistan extra hope

Opening fixtures against Lebanon postponed.

KARACHI: The opening day of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania zone group II tie between Lebanon and Pakistan was abandoned after the Lebanese Tennis Federation (LTF) refused to shift the matches to the indoor courts due to rain.

The tie, moved from Lahore to Beirut over security fears, will resume today with coach and non-playing captain Rashid Malik hoping the extra day of practice will be beneficial for the tourists. Pakistan’s squad comprises Asiamul Haq Qureshi, Aqeel Khan, Yasir Khan and Mohammad Abid.

“The Lebanese federation knows that our players will crush them on the hard court so they don’t want to use the indoor courts,” Malik told The Express Tribune. “We were told on Friday afternoon that they don’t have good indoor courts so they had to postpone the tie for the day but when we saw the indoor facilities, we were really impressed.

“They are good enough but the LTF has chosen clay court which is also fine by us. We’ve got more time to practice now.”

Hard surface favours Pakistan: Malik

According to Malik, the outdoor court was too wet due to the rain and would have hurt Pakistan’s game if they had opted to play late in the afternoon. He added that Aisam and Aqeel were better serve-and-volley players therefore hard surface favours them.

Meanwhile, Malik backed the duo’s form to be a major factor in the tie and backed his players to come good.

“We don’t have clay courts in Pakistan and our players are more used to playing on grass and hard courts but Aisam and Aqeel are experienced enough to play on clay.”

We miss playing at home: Aqeel

Aqeel, though, said that losing home advantage was a big factor in the tie and will affect Pakistan’s game. Playing away from home, according to the Pakistan number one, pushes the players to get out of their comfort zone and play on the opponents’ terms.

“Playing away from home is definitely more challenging,” said Aqeel. “It’s been more than four years since we played a Davis Cup tie in Pakistan. If the ITF hadn’t stopped Pakistan from hosting the ties, we would’ve improved a lot on our group rankings. We might have even broken in the Asia/Oceania group I, but all these things are out of our hands and we can only play with what we have in front of us.”

Earlier, the ITF forced the tie away from Pakistan despite Lebanon’s willingness to tour the country. The ITF, acting on advice of an independent security firm, deemed Pakistan too risky to host the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2012.