KARACHI: Jakarta-bound Pakistan Davis Cup quartet suffered a severe blow on Friday following knee injury to tennis celebrity Aisam-ul-Haq that compelled him to pull out of ATP Tennis Championship at Nottingham, UK.

Aisam is part of Pakistan Davis Cup team that plays Indonesia in the Asia Oceania Zone Group Two second round tie from July 14-16 on synthetic hard court.

Reports emanating from UK say that he is getting treatment in London and his participation in Wimbledon hangs in balance.

In this scenario a heavy responsibility lies on the shoulder of country’s top tennis player Aqeel Khan to lead the team from the front.

According to Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) rules, if Aisam opts out of Davis Cup, open trials will be held to pick his replacement, Aqeel told Dawn on Saturday.

Davis Cup clash against Indonesia

Abid Ali Akbar, who made his Davis Cup debut in the first round against Kuwait, and Samir Iftikhar are the other two members of the team. Veteran Davis Cupper Hameed-ul-Haq has been named non-playing captain.

Pakistan beat Kuwait 3-2 in the first round played on clay court at a neutral venue in Colombo from March 6 to 8.

Indonesia had blanked Iran 5-0 in the group one opener.

Aqeel, who leaves for Islamabad on Monday, said the team will fly to the Indonesian capital on July 6, about a week before the event, to acclimatise with the weather and court conditions.

Terming the knee injury to his doubles partner Aisam as a blow to the team Aqeel said he was in constant touch with the former.

“Jakarta’s hot weather will pose as the main obstacle and if the team adjusted it may win the rubber,” he added.

To a question Aqeel said he was in fine nick and looking forward to delivering the goods in the coming event. “My right shoulder has fully recovered with exercises and physiotheraphy,” said the recipient of Pride of Performance.

It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan made it to the group final last year where they went down 1-4 to Thailand.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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