KARACHI: Paktisan top-seeds Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan will represent the country at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, confirmed the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF).
“We’re sending our best talent to the games and we’re confident that they will bring the gold medal home,” the PTF secretary Rashid Khan told The Express Tribune. “We wanted to send our women’s squad too but the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has restricted us to send a three-member squad to India.”
Mohammad Khalid will accompany the players as the non-playing captain and manger for the event.
Rashid also said that the PTF will not hold any camp for the Commonwealth Games because Aisam is already participating in the US Open and does not need extra training for the New Delhi event, while Aqeel has been practising in Karachi.
The PTF official however, added that although Aqeel would be at a slight disadvantage compared to Aisam but he will get the required match practice during the PTF National Championship that will begin later this month.
Meanwhile, Rashid expressed that the PTF was upset after the PSB suddenly withdrew the tennis squad’s participation in the Asian Games in China.
“The PSB hasn’t given the reasons behind cancelling participation in the Asian Games. It’s a bigger event and there are good chances of our players winning gold medals in the doubles event,” said Rashid.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2010.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ