Hong Kong team should visit Pakistan to play Davis Cup Asian-Oceania Group-II tie. Indian players will visit Pakistan for international events. President ATF Mr. Anil Khana
By.Asghar Ali Mubarak,
The Asian Tennis Federation President Mr. Anil Khana , ATF secretary Mr. Suresh Subramium, , President PTF Mr. Salim Saifullah Khan , Sr. VP Asian Tennis Federation Syed Dilawar Abbas , Sr. VP Asian Tennis Federation while addressing joint media briefing here at S. Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex Islamabad stated that Pakistan is a very safe country for international players. Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) president and vice president International Tennis Federation Anil Kumar Khanna said that ‘’Lahore is my second home because my father belongs to Lahore “I have strong and deep roots in Pakistan. I always give high importance to Pakistan. The Asian Tennis Federation President Mr. Anil Khana, revealed that Asian Tennis Federation has opened another Asian Tennis Center at New Delhi India, first one is already operational at Bangkok, He also appreciated the manner the Iran vs. Pakistan Tie was held in Pakistan. He offered Pakistanis young tennis players to use those facilities on subsidized rates to groom their games. On a question on how both the countries can enhance tennis exchanges, He said that last month Pakistan Davis Cup team visited Delhi. He assured that Indian and other Asian players will visit Pakistan for international events.Mr. Anil Khanna stated that Hong Kong team should to come and see safe environment in Pakistan. Explaining the salient features of ‘ITF 2024’Asian federation president Mr. Anil Khana admitted the need to tap the vast potential for tennis all over the world, especially in Asia.The ITF 2024 is a new strategic plan for creating a long-term strategy for sustainable growth of the sport ITF’s mission to develop, grow and promote tennis around the world through good governance, integrity and trust, inclusiveness, innovation, ambition and collaboration, he stated. “We haven’t spent much time here with the development of tennis,” Mr. Anil Khana admitted that “After football; it is tennis that holds the maximum potential. To start with, it is among the most watched sport .Khanna, who is also vice-president of the ITF, observed that the governing body needs to seek fresh avenues to inject revenue into the sport. “Davis Cup and Fed Cup are key areas, but we need to find ways to get additional funding from the Grand Slams that can be diverted into development of tennis at grassroots level,” Khanna said. “ In tennis, we have a problem as there are four governing bodies — the ATP, the WTA, the four Grand Slams and the ITF — and all of them are somehow involved in looking after the sport. Maybe, we just need one single body,” he offered.“On our part, we would be happy to see new revenue streams in tennis. But this to happen, we need to create a level playing field. The junior wing of the ITF has had a tremendous success with its grassroots programmes and that is why we have some exciting stars in tennis today. The end result is that Grand slams make huge amounts of money on tennis. And I think we need a better distribution of this cash into the world of tennis,” Khanna added. Meanwhile Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) president Anil Kumar Khanna has said that after the clearance given by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the Hong Kong team should have visited Pakistan to play Davis Cup Asian-Oceania Group-II tie against the hosts.In an interview with The Daily Mail international on Saturday, Anil, who is also ITF vice president, said: “The ITF has its own security system analysis and they have termed Islamabad a safe place to hold the Davis Cup tie after a thorough investigation and their security personnel reports, so in my opinion, Hong Kong should not have refused to play in Pakistan.”Appreciating the wonderful efforts of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Salim Saifullah Khan and patron Dilawar Abbas, Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) president Anil Kumar Khanna said the way the PTF high ups had been doing their work sincerely, time is not far, when Pakistan tennis will flourish and start reaping fruits at international level. “It is unfortunate that Davis Cup ties didn’t happen in Pakistan so long due to which their youth has less interest in this game, but even then I think future of tennis in Pakistan is bright.”Sharing his wide experience of tennis, Anil has said that there are three ‘’Cs’’, which play very important role in the promotion tennis in any country. “The first C stands for Courts, as without having proper infrastructure, no Country can progress in any particular field. In my opinion, every country should provide easy and neighborhood facility to every player, as if any player has to Come from too far for practice purpose, he/she will find it too tough to continue it. The better and easy access to tennis courts can certainly help in raising interest of the game among the youngsters.“The second ‘’C’’ stands for Coaching, which has greater significance in any game. Coaching is a great source of grooming the talent as well as it provides opportunities to tennis players to get employment by applying their skills to the beginners. The ITF and ATF also pondering over providing coaches education programme to their associates to improve the coaches’ skills,” he said. “The third ‘’C’’ is competition, as the more a country conducts the competitions, the better and shinning talent they will get. In India, around 850 tournaments are conducted per year, which means 17 events per week, so by holding competitions in such a huge number will surely contribute well in boosting the game,” he added. The Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) president Anil Kumar Khanna also stressed upon computerizing the entire data of the players and the federation as it helps in keeping everything in apple pie order. “If a federation puts a complete record of their players in computer and keeps on updating rankings and other important records on their websites, it helps in encouraging the players, who remain in touch with the sites and makes extra efforts to improve their rankings. In India, everything is computerized and updated now and this healthy struggle is benefitting them a lot.”At end Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) president Anil Kumar Khanna suggested that the PTF should bind its associates to focus on hunting and grooming young talent to get long-term benefits. “Every associate and even every coach should take the responsibility of some schools and their kids, arrange tournaments for them by getting entry fee of around Rs500 to 800 and utilize this amount on conducting regular tournaments. It will not only create interest of tennis among schools kids but also provide employment opportunities to more and more tennis players.The Asian Tennis Federation President Mr. Anil Khana appreciated Pakistan to organize a very successful Davis cup tie against Iran after a long 12 years gape. Earlier President PTF Mr. Salim Saifullah Khan welcomed the guests who visited second time during last few months and thanked their support to get Davis Cup in Pakistan. He also thanked media for extremely positive coverage of Davis Cup tie held last February at Islamabad against Iran. President PTF Salim Saifullah Khan has urged the International Tennis Federation to grant Pakistan more international tennis in all age categories. “It is surprising that we have been allowed to hold ATF 14 and under Super Series Tennis Championships but were not allowed to host our home Davis Cup tie against China,” he said while stressing that Pakistan was secure for all type of sports activities .Pakistan lost their all-important Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group I tie against China 3-0 last week as tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Pakistan number one Aqeel Khan failed to hold their opponents in the doubles rubber at the clay courts of Colombo. But Saifullah believed that Pakistan suffered defeat because it played its home tie away and that on clay courts.He pointed out that the because of ITF embargo to hold international events in Pakistan, the federation was compelled to hold various international events abroad, which cost Pakistan heavily. The Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) has decided to offer ranking points to the players winning matches in the Davis Cup ties including the Asia/Oceania zone, and the recently-launched Asian Tennis Tour (ATT).The ATP offers ranking points at only World Group and World group Play-offs level. “The whole idea of re-structuring the ATF rankings came about with the launch of the Asian Tennis tour (ATT). ATF is keen to encourage and give an identity to the players on the ATT,” “The ATF ranking list will now be a combination of players’ ATP points, performance in Davis Cup and the ATT.”It means that players who have not made it to the ATP singles ranking list as yet, will have at least a singles rank in the Asia ranking list.After considering performance in the zonal ties held from July 15-17, at least 19 players who have no ATP points as yet, now have a rank in the ATF singles list.Thailand’s Pruchya Isarow is ranked 907 in the ATP list with 16 points. However after considering his performance in the Davis Cup and the ATT, he will be ranked 51 among Asians.President Salim Saifullah Khan stated that “This is positive for us,” hopefully they will support us in establishing ATF offices in Pakistan. This helps us attract international events to Pakistan.” More over ATF secretary Surendran Subramaniam, who is visiting Pakistan for the second time and Lahore for the first time, appreciated the love, care and hospitality of Pakistanis and termed his tour a remarkable one. “I am first time visited Lahore and very impressed to see the infrastructure of tennis and beauty of this historical city. I would love to visit Pakistan again and if I get a chance, I would come to witness Davis Cup Group-II final here. I can foresee a bright future of tennis in Pakistan. ATF secretary, Subramaniam Surendran, pushed for an increase in the number of tournaments at the grassroots level along special competitions for girls in the West Asia region. “If we need to create this base of young players then we need to cater to several issues that will help us tackle problems such as training of specialized staff, a unified rankings system along with the presence of well-trained personnel,”, Subramaniam Surendran, said. He along with Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) chief Anil Khanna visited Pakistan to observe the development of the sport in the country. The officials also attend ATF Junior Players Development Committee Islamabad, where the meeting was headed by Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Salim Saifullah Khan.
