KARACHI, 3 August 2007 — Pakistani tennis officials have approached their Indian counterparts in a bid to rope in tennis queen Sania Mirza for a Pak-India series scheduled to be held in Pakistan later this year.
A Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) official told Arab News on Saturday that efforts are on to add star attraction to the test series against India in November and the federation has inquired about the possibility of the Indian pin-up girl’s participation in the event.
“We have proposed to the Indian Lawn Tennis Federation to add mixed doubles matches during the test series and have asked whether they can bring in Sania Mirza to add glamour to the contest,” PTF secretary Major Rashid Khan said. “We know that Sania is an international tennis start and has a busy schedule but we still decided to give it a shot,” he added.
Sania, ranked at No. 35 in the world, is currently the hottest property of Asian tennis because of her exploits in international events and her charisma.
Rashid said that the idea is to have top class players like Leander Paes or Rohan Bopanna teaming up with Sania for India while in Pakistan’s corner the country’s tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq can have former national champion Nida Wasim as his partner.
Nida was once seen as a bright prospect and enjoyed a successful career as junior player on the international circuit before she decided to pursue her ambition to become a lawyer. She is still the best female player in the country, something the Karachi girl has proved by effortlessly winning national ranking events here in recent times.
“It would be great to have players like Aisam, Leander, Sania and Nida in the Pak-India test series because they can really raise the event’s profile,” said the PTF secretary.
He said that the PTF have asked Indian officials to get on board their No. 2 player if Sania is unavailable. “We are aware that all of the leading girls are good players and either of them could play a big role in the series.”
Rashid said that the inclusion of a mixed doubles in the Pak-India series, featuring Sania, is one of the several proposals sent by the PTF to the Delhi-based ILTF.
“We have recommended a few changes in the format of the series and final decisions would be taken soon by us and India soon,” he said.
Pakistan and India had a series of meetings last year before launching a bilateral tennis series which was played on both sides of the border in 2006. Pakistan hosted the first leg of the series and later the two teams crossed the border to play in India.
Rashid said that this year, there would be a change in the format and instead of having the series on both sides of the border at one stretch, Pakistan will hold it this year while the return leg would be played in India in 2008.
