KARACHI, 3 August 2007 — Pakistani tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi will take a shot at the Asian title in September when he features in the 2007 Asian Tennis Championship to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Aisam, who has been making headlines this summer with a spate of impressive results on the international tennis circuit, will be playing for Pakistan in the Asian Championship alongside Davis Cup teammate Aqeel Khan.
A Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) official told Arab News that the entries of Aisam and Aqeel have already been sent to the organizers of the US$100,000 tournament to be played at the Tashkent Tennis Centre from Sept. 3-8.
“Aisam and Aqeel will be representing Pakistan in the Asian Tennis Championship and we expect some positive results from the players, especially from Aisam who is in great form these days,” PTF secretary Major (retd) Rashid Khan said. More than the prize purse, it would be a wild card for next January’s Australian Open that would be the main attraction for Aisam. The winners of the men’s and women’s event of the Asian Championship will both earn wild card entries in the Australian Open — the year’s opening Grand Slam event.
“The way Aisam is playing, we believe he can win the Asian title in Tashkent and qualify for the Australian Open,” said Rashid.
According to tournament rules, each Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) member association can nominate their top two ATP or WTA-ranked players for the Asian Championship.
Pakistan currently have no WTA-ranked player while their only players in the ATP rankings are Aisam and Aqeel. Following his heroics in a series of international events this summer including Wimbledon, Aisam has climbed up to No. 164 in the AT rankings. Aqeel is lagging far behind in spite of a small jump up the rankings ladder this month and is ranked No. 533. The winners of the Asian Championship’s singles events would receive US$7200 each.
Both Aisam and Aqeel missed last year’s Asian Championship. While Aisam was busy competing in other world ranking event abroad while Aqeel’s entry was blocked by visa-related problems.
Aisam is schedule to return home next week after competing in a world ranking tournament in Spain, while Aqeel is currently playing in ITF Futures events in India.
Meanwhile, the PTF has requested the ATF to make changes in the dates of the Asian Under-14 Tennis Championship to be held in Pakistan later this year.
Major Rashid said that the event has been allotted to Pakistan and is scheduled for Oct. 9-15 in Islamabad but the PTF has asked the ATF to reschedule it because of Ramadan and Eid.
