KARACHI: Irrespective of the falling standard of the game, tennis coach Jamil Khan is carrying out his duties of grooming the youth religiously for over four decades and can be seen on the Modern Club courts with youngsters six days a week.
The illustrious father of three Davis Cuppers — Aqeel Khan, Jalil Khan and Yasir Khan — who have ruled the domestic circuit for a decade now, is considered a ‘light at the end of tunnel’.
Born in Bannu, the 63-year-old Jamil inherited the art of coaching from his father, the late Saadat Khan who used to train and play with the then Army players and foreigners in his hometown.
After coming to the city of lights in early 60s, he joined Pak PWD as a tennis coach in 1967 which had two courts and were located behind Capri cinema. After a five-year stint, he moved to the Modern Club in 1972, five years after its foundation following a vacancy. Then, the facility was in its primitive stage with just two courts.
With the passage of time and particularly, after former Olympian and Rome Olympic gold medalist Abdul Waheed Khan joined as an administrator some two decades back, the institution has transformed into one of the best tennis academies of the country, says Jamil.
After the installation of floodlights in 1980, the club now boasts of six hard courts, separate fitness centre for men and women, facilities for snooker, table tennis, and squash.
According to him, initially, there were plans to build a swimming pool but it was dropped later.
The soft-spoken Jamil attributed the selection of his three sons in the Davis Cup quartet for the first time against Philippines in 2007 as the ‘happiest moment of his life’.Since then, the trio has featured together in Davis Cup on many occasions. Jalil has now hanged up his racket by switching to coaching and is on the panel of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) as national coach.
Though Jamil has groomed thousands of players over the years, some of his pupils preferred studies over the game and managed to get tennis scholarships in universities abroad. They include Omer Shahid, Danish Ahmed, Salman Ahmed and Yayha Abdullah.
“I’m satisfied that apart from my sons who have donned national colour my other pupils, whose parents have reposed confidence in me, are doing well at the national level,” Jamil said.
