In all nine years of the current management of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), it was my observation that PTF officials would squander all the efforts and hard work done by the tennis loving PTF President Salim Saifullah Khan. Being here in Kuwait, it is regretful to bear witness PTF President's efforts go to waste due to the sad state of internal PTF affairs.
The current PTF management in their nine years’ tenure not only wasted the existing talent, they also destroyed the future of Pakistan tennis by not producing a single capable tennis player to represent them internationally, thanks to the casual attitude, ego, and incompetent policies of a senior official of PTF.
At the onset of Salim Saifullah's tenure, Aqeel Khan and Sarah Mehboob were Pakistan’s number one players, and still both these players hold the number one ranks as no new young talent could rise up.
The likes of Davis Cup players Saamir Iftikhar, Abid Ali Akbar, Muzammil Murtaza and Fed cup player Mahin Aftab, each and every one of them had their talents laid to waste due to the policies of the said senior official. Same is happening with the current junior national champion and men’s top 10 ranked youngster Sami Zaib where should have been invited in trials for Davis Cup but some unknown USA based player Mujtaba Ali Khan blue eyed of top officials is invited for the Davis Cup trails purely on reference base.
Similarly, an adviser to PTF kept promoting his daughter to attain all the benefits by hook or by crook while the said senior official kept promoting a certain tennis coach because of his lengthy friendship with that coach's father. Similarly the adviser used PTF to recommend her daughter to secure Tamgha-i-Imtiaz completing blowing up all merits while ignoring Islamic Games Gold Medalist, Asian Games Silver Medalist and SAF Games Gold medalist tennis players. This has brought shame not only to the entire tennis fraternity but also to the entire deserving sports & players in Pakistan.
Now let us examine the performance of the PTF management. Last year, only six men’s national tournaments were held and this year none has taken place so far. Where will the national players go and how will they prepare professionally in the absence of a competitive platform?
This year 2023, Pakistan Davis cup team suffered an ugly defeat from Lithuania in February in Lithuania just after defeating the same Lithuanian team in Pakistan in March 2022.
The juniors Davis Cup under-16 team got the last position out of 16 in the Junior Davis Cup Asia-Oceania qualifying event held in Kazakhstan in May 2023. This defeat stands as one of the worst in the history of Pakistan tennis.
In the Billie Jean King Cup Asia Oceania Group 2 event held in July 2023 in Malaysia, the ladies team got 10th position out of 12 teams and just marginally avoided relegation to Asia Oceania Group 3.
In the under-14 ITF World Junior Tennis Finals event held in August 2023 in Czech Republic, the juniors team attained the last position out of 16 teams with a record bagel sets (6-0) for the defeating Pakistani players. No Pakistani could secure a single set from any opponent.
This year only one positive news came out that the Junior U14 team qualified for the world group but the junior team selected for the ITF Junior Tennis Finals event couldn't even secure the Czech Republic visa as nothing was done from PTF management on time. Alternatively, they selected "B" grade team of dual nationals who got bageled in the worst way possible. The dual national coach sent with the team never even managed a street team as a captain/coach but the PTF selected him for a huge task.
These few examples are enough to show the sheer incompetency of the PTF management. The onus is on the authorities who have been allowing extension to the current management without elections since November 2022.
It is my final observation and question that under the captaincy of legendary Hamid Ul Haq, the Pakistan Davis Cup team beat Indonesia in Jakarta in 2015 without Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi where Abid Ali Akbar and Samir Iftikhar outshined the Indonesian team and now can Pakistan team beat them in Davis Cup again at our home ground – Islamabad -- next month without Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi? I don’t think so.
(The writer is an International Certified PTR Tennis Coach from USA, ITF Certified Level II Tennis Coach, and also an Internationally Qualified high-performance pro tennis coach from Pakistan).
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