ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Senior tennis player Hameedul Haq on Monday called upon the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) to start focussing on juniors as nothing had been done in this area for the past three years. “The biggest mistake committed by the PTF is that they did not send an under-14 team abroad this year perhaps fearing a repeat of the poor performance of the side during previous years.”

Hameed, Pakistan’s most capped Davis Cup player, who is the current Asian Seniors champion, pointed out that the junior Davis Cup team fared poorly finishing 14th out of 16 teams this year in the Asian Zone. Last year the results were almost identical.

So pathetic has been the showing at the junior level that at last week’s ITF Juniors Tournament in Islamabad, no Pakistani could make the semifinals in all four events.

“It is very embarrassing that none of our players could shine in what was a category IV tournament and they were the Indians who dominated the show.”

Hameed said that if the PTF had invested seriously in the juniors three years ago, the situation definitely would hvae been different today.

He cited two key reasons for this state of affairs. First, the PTF appointed non-technical people to accompany teams going abroad and second, the secretary of the federation has not spent enough time in office.

“When you have non-technical people like Khalid Rehmani (joint secretary PTF) and Arif Qureshi (treasurer PTF) being sent as coaches and captains what results can one expect,” he asked.

“Hameed called for sending professional coaches with teams that play abroad as is normally done for Davis Cup ties.”

He said that Khalid was violating ITF and PTF rules by making juniors play in four events in one tournament. “International rules allow for a player to compete in only two events.

“Despite complaints from several quarters to the PTF regarding this, it is a pity that the federation took no action.”

Hameed stressed that for the good of the game it was about time that a full-time paid secretary was brought in as has been suggested by the ITF’s Development Officer for Asia, Suresh Menon.