KARACHI, 13 July 2007 — Pakistan’s tennis hero Aisam-ul-Haq, who recently made headlines by reaching the second round at Wimbledon, is unlikely to feature in his country’s Davis Cup campaign in 2008.
National tennis officials are already planning to prepare a ‘new look’ team made up mostly of junior players for next year’s Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-III contest to be held in July.
Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) president Senator Dilawar Abbas says that he would like to see a few new boys make their way in the Davis Cup squad in 2008.
“We have to plan for the future which is why it is important for us to have young players in our Davis Cup team,” he says.
Pakistan tennis got a huge blow this year when Aisam, their most accomplished Davis Cupper, decided to stay away from the Asia Oceania Group-II contest. Without Aisam, Pakistan were toppled by the Philippines and lowly Pacific Oceania and had to suffer the ignominy of getting relegated to Group-III.
Officials concede that Aisam’s participation in next year’s Davis Cup is also unlikely because of the fact that Group-III features mostly lower-rated teams and would be of very little interest for a player who recently reached the second round of the Wimbledon.
Aisam, 27, is experiencing a purple patch in his form after having beaten French No. 1 Richard Gasquet at Halle last month and more importantly becoming only the second Pakistani to reach the second round at Wimbledon after Haroon Rahim in 1976.
The Lahore player was the reason why Pakistan enjoyed their best ever Davis Cup year in 2005 when they reached the World Group playoffs and played against Fernando Gonzalez-led Chile in Santiago.
But since then it has all been downhill for the Pakistanis who were relegated to Group-II in 2006 following successive defeats against Chinese Taipei, India and China. They experienced further embarrassment this year following losses against the Philippines and Pacific Oceania.
Family sources say that Aisam has been disheartened with Pakistan’s continuous losses in recent years in spite of the fact that he wins his singles matches most of the time.
PTF officials, meanwhile, are also unhappy with the spate of poor results and want to infuse new blood in the Davis Cup squad.
However, the problem with Pakistan tennis is that there are not many young players who are good enough to play at the Davis Cup.
Karachi youngster Yasir Khan has been a part of the Davis Cup but his form has dipped in recent times. Another young Davis Cupper Shahzad Khan from Faisalabad has been dogged by a knee injury in recent seasons.
It seems that Pakistan will once again be tapping their senior players Aqeel Khan, Asim Shafik, Nomi Qamar and Jalil Khan to help them climb back to Group-II next year.
Pakistan have to finish among the top two teams in the eight-nation Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-III contest to be held next summer. The venue of the event would be decided later this month.
This year’s regional Group-III event would be held in Colombo from July 16-22. The teams competing in the event are Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UAE, Vietnam.
The event is played on a round robin basis with the eight teams divided into two pools of four. The first two teams from each pool advance to another round-robin group. The teams finishing first and second in this final pool are promoted to Group-II. The teams finishing third and fourth in each pool also advance to another round-robin pool. The teams finishing in third and fourth in this subsequent pool are relegated to Group IV.
