Not-a-quitter Aisam aiming for more glory

Pakistan’s international tennis player recently won the Hall of Fame Championships

KARACHI: Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi believes that giving up while one is down is hardly the path he wants to pursue.

After a largely lacklustre season with just one title under his belt, the 35-year-old won the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport with English partner Jonathan Marray last week.

The duo won the final 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 against Nicholas Monroe and Croatia’s Mate Pavic to clinch the title despite Aisam having barely recovered from a knee injury sustained before the Wimbledon.

“It’s good to win a title, especially while I was struggling with an injury,” Aisam told The Express Tribune. “I don’t want to quit, especially now when I’m down. I still need to win a Grand Slam and I still have my goals. The ATP circuit is tough and every player fights for himself.”

The 2010 US Open doubles finalist credited his success to the motivation he received from Pakistan’s 3-1 win over Indonesia in their Davis Cup’s Asia-Oceania Zone Group II semi-final tie. “I found myself extremely motivated by the way Aqeel Khan, Samir Iftikhar and Abid Ali Akbar won the tie,” said Aisam. “They were playing without me and they completely supported me when I told them about my injury. The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) understood too, so when I found out that they had won, I pulled myself together and gave my all at Newport.”

Aisam, who is currently ranked 44th in the ATP individual doubles rankings, revealed that he will be playing with Marray for the next two weeks in the clay-court events in Europe before heading out to the US to play on the hard courts.

He said that although his physiotherapist has advised him to avoid hard-court events, he wants to continue working hard to improve his ranking.

Aisam and Marray will begin their campaign at the Claro Open in Bogota as fourth seeds against Marcelo Demoliner and Adrián Menéndez-Maceiras on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2015.

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