Tennis news: Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi makes the dejected Pakistanis beam
Pakistan has been in a state of depression for a long time now. The floods that hit the country recently destroyed a huge number of lives and affected numerous people. Then there was the huge cricket scandal that gripped the country’s cricketers and does not seem to go away anytime soon. There seems to be some good news finally being given to the tension-stricken nation in the unlikely sport of tennis. Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian doubles partner Rohan Bopanna have reached the finals of the men’s doubles finals at the U.S Open. The Pakistani tennis star has achieved another accolade by reaching the final of the mixed doubles final as well with his Czech partner Kveta Peschke. There seems to be no stopping this very capable tennis player.
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi has had a very successful career so far. He started playing tennis late at the age of 14 in his home country of Pakistan. After a very successful run at the junior level he turned pro at the age of 18. This was a huge development for him because in only 4 years he was able to go from never-having played tennis before to turning professional. His junior level career was very successful, and he reached his highest ranking of number 7 in the world. This made him Pakistan’s highest-ranked international level player. After turning pro in 1998, Aisam has not had the sort of success as a singles player that he had at the junior level. He is currently ranked 103rd in the world and a lot of people including his coach say he could very well be ranked higher but he needs to work on his fitness levels. His style of play is excellent; it is just a question of keeping up with the top players in the world. However, it may be too late for him, as he is already 30 years old.
With his singles campaign is not going so well, Aisam decided to concentrate on doubles and mixed doubles to help him make a name for himself and for his country. When he started out playing doubles tennis, he did not know that it would take him so far in his career. He initially paired up with various Pakistani tennis players and competed in the Davis Cup. It was when he came onto the international scene as a doubles tennis player that he started to catch people’s attention. He is not one to shy away from controversy either but his controversies are a little bit different to the current scandal that the Pakistani players find themselves strangled in. Aisam first paired up with an Israeli tennis player named Amir Hadad in 2003. This pairing proved to be a big problem for people in both their countries because Aisam is Muslim and from Pakistan and Hadad was from Israel, a country that Pakistan does not officially recognise. The pair won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award that year for their standing up in the face of criticism and condemnation. They brought about the message of tolerance and peace through tennis and showed the world that if two tennis players can get along and play together, why their countries could not do the same. Aisam did the same thing again by pairing up with Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna, which was initially condemned by people in both countries but they stood up to it all.
With the recent devastating floods and the spot-fixing scandal that has devastated cricket in the country, Pakistan really needed a boost, with the Pakistani sport enthusiasts eagerly waiting for spirit-lifting news. The nation was overwhelmed yesterday when they found out that local boy Aisam-ul-Haq had achieved two great feats in tennis. Even though tennis is not that widely followed in Pakistan; Aisam being the first tennis player from the country to make it to the finals of a Grand Slam tournament helped lift the spirits of the nation. He did not only make it to the final of the doubles tournament of the U.S Open with his partner Rohan Bopanna but he also made it to the final of the mixed doubles tournament of the same Grand Slam. If he can win the finals of either format, he will make an entire nation proud and make history in Pakistan.
The Pakistani tennis star has a few years left to make a notable mark in the world of tennis. If he can achieve something great in the sport, he might be able to switch a whole nation’s focus away from cricket and bring them to the exciting sport of tennis.
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