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| May 14, 2003 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424 |
Pakistan finish poor 12th
KARACHI, May 13: Pakistan finished a poor 12th in the Junior Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Zone tennis that concluded in Jakarta (Indonesia) earlier this month.
According to Khalid Rahmani, who went with the three-member national team as manager and non-playing captain, the Pakistanis just finished ahead of Iran and Oman in the 14-team contest.
Formerly known as the Youth World Cup, the event is now called the Junior Davis Cup and is participated by under-16 teams all over the world.
The Pakistani team included Lahore youngsters Shahrukh Niazi and Tanveer Ashiq and Risalpur’s Aftab Anwar. It lost all the four best-of-three matches it played during the tournament.
A total of 22 teams from Asia and Oceania region were invited to compete in the tournament but eight countries including Australia and China remained away from the event because of the SARS outbreak in the region.
The 14 participating teams were divided into four groups. Pakistan was placed along side India and Uzbekistan in Pool D.
In their opening match, Pakistan was thrashed by India 3-0 followed by a similar result against Uzbekistan. India and Uzbekistan qualified for the quarterfinals while Pakistan were relegated to the play-offs.
In the match for the 9-10 places against Japan, the Pakistan failed to perform any better and was beaten 3-0.
Their best show in the event came in the play-off for the 11th position when they managed to win the doubles match against the Philippines before going down 1-2 to take the 12th position.
Hosts Indonesia won the tournament beating South Korea in the final. The two finalists were joined by semifinalists India and Chinese Taipei as qualifiers from the Asia-Oceania Zone for the Junior Davis Cup World Group Tournament to be played in September in Cologne (Germany).
The World Group tournament will feature 16 teams who have qualified from various regions of the world.
Khalid, who is also the joint secretary of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), said it was inexperience and lack of proper training that let his team down in Jakarta.
He admitted that the team picked was a very weak outfit, as most of the leading under-16 players of the country could not attend the trials held in Islamabad to select the squad. He pointed out that promising players like Sheharyar Wali and Ramee Aijaz missed the trials as they are studying abroad.—PPI
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