KARACHI, Oct 9: Pakistan’s Davis Cup coach Rashid Malik on Thursday asked the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) to hold the training camp for the next Davis Cup tie against Thailand in Karachi.

Rashid claimed that the weather conditions in Karachi will be similar to Bangkok where the first round match of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I tournament between Pakistan and Thailand will take place in February next year.

Rashid said that since Thailand were a strong team, Pakistan will have to take all possible steps to train their players in an appropriate manner for the best-of-five tie.

The former Pakistan No. 1, who helped the national Davis Cup team beat strong South Korea 3-2 in the 2003 Davis Cup play-off in Lahore last month, believed that choosing the right venue for the Davis training camp was one of the crucial decisions which the PTF will have to make within the next few weeks.

Rashid declared that the tie against Thailand was less than four months away which means that Pakistan does not have much time to lose in making the preparation programme for the tough assignment.

He opined that the PTF should choose Karachi as the venue of the training camp as it will be too cold in other major cities of the country including Lahore and Islamabad at the time when the camp will be held.

Rashid said that Pakistan should have at least four to six weeks of training for the Davis Cup tie and added that the camp should start by the end of December.

Normally, the PTF hold a two-week long training camp before a Davis Cup tie but Rashid felt that it was too less a period to train the players for such a major event.

He pointed out that one of the major reasons why Pakistani players fail to perform according to their potential was that they mostly lack physical fitness. “Best of five sets matches are played during the Davis Cup for three consecutive days which is a very difficult task of a player who is not fully fit” he said.

Rashid urged the PTF to ensure that all the four players of the national Davis Cup team to attend the camp in order to make it sure that they were fully fit for the important event.

Pakistan’s Davis Cup team for the last month’s match against South Korea included national champion Aqeel Khan, Aisamul Haq, Nomi Qamar and Jaleel Khan. There is little chance that any change will be made in the national team for the match against Thailand.—PPI