LONDON, 14 July 2006 — Pakistan and India have agreed to field their top stars in the inaugural tennis ‘test series’ to be played on a home-and-away basis in November this year.
Paistan Tennis Federation (PTF) president Senator Dilawar Abbas told Arab News here on Tuesday that details of the four-match series were worked out by him and an Indian tennis official in London during the last few days.
Dilawar, who was in England to watch the Wimbledon, said that he met with Anil Khanna, secretary general of the All Indian Tennis Association (ALTA) in London to finalize the first edition of the series.
“Both Pakistan and India believe that if held on a regular basis, such a competition between the top players of the two countries would help raise the profile of the sport in the sub-continent,” he said.
The idea of having a tennis series between Pakistan and India was first floated a couple of years back following a thaw in relations between the two previously hostile neighbors.
But it was only formally discussed by the two parties when Dilawar traveled to Bombay to watch his team’s Davis Cup match against India this April. He talked to top official of ALTA including Khanna and a deal was struck to have the series in November this year.
According to plans, Pakistan would host the first leg of the series in Islamabad and Lahore and later the two teams would then travel to India where ALTA would host two matches. The series would get underway from Nov. 13.
The series would be played on the Davis Cup pattern but will have best-of-three matches rather than best-of-five ties normally used by the world’s biggest team tennis event. There will be two singles matches and a doubles tie in each ‘Test’.
Pakistan would host the opening Test in Islamabad followed by the next match in Lahore. India have announced that one of the Tests on their soil would be held in New Delhi but the venue for the other match is yet to be decided.
Dilawar said that both the parties have agreed to field their top players in the series and would try to hold it annually.
India enjoy a clear edge over Pakistan, having beaten their neighbors in all the six Davis Cup clashes against their biggest sporting rivals. But they barely manage to beat Pakistan in Bombay where the match was decided in a five-setter between Indian skipper Leander Paes and Pakistani second string Aqeel Khan. Paes won the gruelling match to give India a 3-2 triumph.
Dilawar is expecting that the series in November would also spring some exciting results.
“We have some good players like Aisamul Haq and Aqeel and hope that they would do well against India in the series.”
