Tennis and Pakistan
Any ordinary person who visits the myriad of tennis clubs in Pakistan would immediately get the rhetorical question in his mind, 'If this is the level of tennis in a seeminlgly ordinary club of the country, then why isn’t any Pakistani
able to represent the country at the top notch level?' - In other words, be able to compete in the ATP tournaments all over the world?
To be competent enough to answer this question, one must have a strong knowledge of how the Pakistani Tennis Federation (PTF) works and the simple yet long term flaws which are the reason why there aren’t players from Pakistan - except one - that are able
to compete in the ATP tournaments. However, one of the most fundamental reasons is the biases and discrimination being present in the PTF. The entire focus of the PTF is mainly on the children of some of the known tennis players who represented Pakistan at
some time in the past and on the officials working in the local tennis body. The other children who play tennis are disregarded and not paid as much attention for their tennis skills to flourish despite the fact that they might even better than the so called
‘ranked’ players in the country.
When talking about the ongoings of tennis in the country, here is what a young Pakistani tennis player had to say:
"I used to play tennis and participated in almost all the tournaments held within the country. One time, I participated in the famous federal ranking cup which is held every year in Pakistan, in the city of Islamabad. Unfortunately, for the students this
tournament is held in the examination periods. Anyway when the draws were taken out for the juniors group I was utterly dismayed to find out my match was on the day I had my exam. But my love for tennis was of such magnitude that I decided to forgo one part
of the exam so that I could reach in time for the match. I reached at the venue about 15 minutes late, and to utter disbelieve my match had been forfeited as I was late. I requested the tournament director and explained my situation and hoped he might understand.
But what I got back as an answer made it crystal clear to me that if I wanted to pursue tennis, I had no chance by staying in Pakistan. The directors answer was, and I quote, 'Son I understand your situation but I don’t have any power to do anything since
your opponent is the son of one of the leading coaches in Pakistan - All I can do is sympathise with you.'"
The players in the region aren’t given the proper foundation to launch their skills and start competing in the high level tournaments. The discrimination done by the organisation discourages the players from common background to pursue it. Proper sponsorships
are not given to emerging players due to which they are unable to go abroad for tournaments, which is otherwise extremely expensive. And till the time the player finds a willing sponsor himself, he is too late to join the circuit. Even if an exception gets
in, like the country’s best player Aisam ul haq, he would be too old too produce any miracles like the legendary Roger Federer or Pete Sampras, who always had time on their side in the building of their illustrious careers.
This main hindrance, as mentioned above, coupled with the old schooled thinking of Pakistani parents that their children have failed in life if they adopt any other profession apart from engineering or medical, is resulting in the youth not wanting to take
up tennis or, for that matter, any sport as a professional career. I sympathise with the youth as they are burdened with the peer pressure of getting in a profession they might not necessarily like or suffer the consequences.
If Pakistanis want to see their country being represented at the international level of sports other than cricket and hockey, they would have to change their way of thinking and secondly, and far more importantly, the PTF should look into their rules and
regulations and make such amendments which benefit the commoners too. They should provide them a channel to harness and develop their skills. I would end this article by saying there is indeed no shortage of talent in Pakistan; in fact, the talent is such
that by proper guidance and training one day, it wont be a long shot seeing a Pakistani being seeded number 1 in the ATP grand slam tournaments.
(The article is based on the views of the writer and his findings on visiting the talent-rich country)
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