Samir Iftikhar the tennis prodigy from Pakistan (part 2)
Samir Iftikhar being in the “Team Elite” now has the added responsibility of having to manage his studies with training, tournaments and maintaining his good run. His coaches have been very helpful and supportive throughout this entire period allowing him
to bring his books to practice sessions. His coach Zulfiqar Rahim is also looking for college scholarships for the young tennis star.
Pakistan has been consistently producing great talent with another 20 year old Tennis star Abid Akbar given a scholarship at the University of Idaho for tennis, and has been consistently performing for his University having been chosen in the Elite panel
of best athletes from the university. Abid Akbar, and Samir Iftikhar are a few of the younger generation tennis players and it is very heartening to see the game blossom in a country where not many people follow the game.
Samir’s first Grand Slam tournament was the Australian Open, however he went on to lose in the first round. However he accepts that it was a wonderful experience for the tennis star, and it has given him some much needed confidence to go into other tournaments.
Despite breaking the 100 barrier in International rankings being his short term goal, Iftikhar knows that his most cherished goal would be to make it to the top on the international circuit.
Samir has played in 13 tournaments winning 28 matches and losing only 12. He has however not played a lot of tournaments on the national circuit and most of his tournaments have been played in the middle east. Having the right connections in the right
places also makes it easy for prospective tennis players to make it big, since many tennis stars hailing from Pakistan do not have the finances to go in to international tours.
Samir believes that tennis in Pakistan can be improved significantly since there is a lot of talent and potential in players on the national circuit. However any improvement would have to be reinforced by the development of Tennis infra structure in the
country.
The players do not get the opportunity to play a lot of tennis locally, and the PTF has not been organizing many tournaments as well. Up till now Samir has played 30 international tournaments and hopes to improve his win loss ratio in the coming years since
he is only 18 and certainly has a long way to go.
“I try to balance the international tournaments I play with the local ones, whenever I am not playing in an international tournament; I try to participate in a local one.” He said.
His coach Zulfiqar Rahim is a former national tennis champion for Pakistan however his career had to end due to a car accident that nearly proved fatal. Since then he has been focusing on coaching the youngster’s of Pakistan and to say that his services
have been vital to the development of local players would be quite an understatement. Rahim has been coaching Samir for the last two years and says the boy is easy to work with. However he does not travel with Samir to international tours due to the high costs,
however Rahim helps the tennis player whenever he is in Pakistan.
Meanwhile Abid Akbar another bright star for Pakistan helped his University, to defeat the nationally ranked UNLV. Being one of the 5 tennis stars playing for his University.
Aisam ul Haq Qureshi recently made waves when he made it to the mens double’s final and the mixed doubles final of the US open. He is the first Pakistani to have made it to the final of a grand slam, and on his return he was awarded a number of accolades.
The public response to his achievements was phenomenal and a teary eyed Aisam said that he had worked hard to make his family and his country proud. He certainly did that. Tennis fan’s from Pakistan can only hope, that players like Samir and Abid will take
in Aisam’s stead and step into the champions shoes once he retires from the game.
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