KARACHI: The world tennis body has assured Pakistan that it will consider the country’s request to host Davis Cup matches, according to Pakistan’s tennis chief.
Dilawar Abbas, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) president, told Arab News on Tuesday that he raised the issue of foreign teams not visiting the embattled country at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) annual general meeting in Madrid last week.
“We have been assured by the ITF that our case will be reopened soon,” said Dilawar, who attended the July 15-17 ITF meeting in the Spanish capital.
“We told them that Pakistan tennis cannot survive without having international events, especially the Davis Cup, at home,” he said.
Dilawar, who is a vice-president of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), also disputed ITF’s process of evaluating security situation in a host country. “We asked them that does your security agency take any input from Pakistan before reaching a decision on whether to give a go-ahead for Davis Cup matches there,” he stressed. Dilawar said that the ITF bosses will now reconsider Pakistan’s demand of getting back its Davis Cup ties.
The fate of Pakistan’s demand for a compensation of US$70,000 for the two Davis Cup ties which were relocated from Lahore earlier this year also hinges on whether the ITF takes a softer stance towards the PTF case this time.
Pakistan tennis received major setbacks earlier this year, when two of the country’s Davis Cup ties were relocated from Lahore because of security reasons.
The London-based ITF first moved Pakistan’s Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I opening round match against Oman from Lahore to Muscat. Pakistan protested against the move but the ITF decided against it. The tie was played in Muscat, where the Pakistanis won it 4-1.
Just a few weeks later, it was decided that Pakistan’s home tie against the Philippines will be switched from Lahore to Manila, once again due to security apprehensions.
The move led to a bitter protest from the PTF which questioned the security situation in the Philippines and asked the Davis Cup authorities to instead move the tie to a neutral venue like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. However, its demand was turned down by the ITF.
The tie was played in hot and humid Manila earlier this month and ended with a morale-shattering 2-3 defeat for Pakistan.
Dilawar said that the switching of home ties didn’t just affect Pakistan’s Davis Cup progress but also resulted in big losses for the cash-strapped PTF. “We have lost around $70,000 after being stripped of our home ties,” he said.
While the ITF is non-committal on whether Pakistan can resume its status as a Davis Cup venue, it has agreed to give the country two international junior events this year.
Dilawar said that the PTF had pushed for three ITF junior tournaments and an equal number of ITF Futures events.
“They have given the go-ahead for two ITF junior events which will be held in Islamabad in October. We are also hopeful of getting one more tournament.”
He said that the ITF has asked the PTF to make arrangements for safe and secure accommodation for the competing players.
However, Dilawar said that the ITF has decided against any allotting any ITF Futures event to Pakistan this year.
