ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s senior tennis player Aqeel Khan said on Sunday that the side’s Davis Cup tie to be held against archrivals India next week was a great chance for the home team to take revenge for the 2006 defeat.

The Indian team was likely to arrive here Sunday night for a historic tour after 60 years for the tie scheduled for Feb 4-3 at the Pakistan Sports Complex.

Aqeel, who was part of Pakistan’s team which traveled to India in 2006, said that he still remembers it was a thriller between both neighbouring countries in Mumbai and after tough competition, Pakistan faced a 2-3 defeat.

The pair of international tennis stars and ace players Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi and Aqeel enjoy a decent record, particularly in Davis Cup, and Aqeel said that Pakistan will give a tough time to visitors during this tie.

“My and Aisam’s career is heading towards the end; therefore, we will make our all-out effort to defeat India in the Davis Cup tie,” he said and added that on paper, the Indian team was better than Pakistan, but Pakistan had the advantage of a home tie and the vast experience of both Aisam and Aqeel.

“Together we have defeated numbers of strong teams. The Davis Cup matches are always considered high-pressure matches, and we have good experience of handling pressure situations,” he said.

“We will do whatever we can do. Our team is good as we have three good young players as well like Mohammad Shoaib, Muzammil Murtaza, and Barkatullah.”

Aqeel was confident that the tie will be an exciting one as he believed Indians, like Pakistani players, were equally good on grass courts.

“In other ties, which we played here in Pakistan, the touring teams had less experience of playing on grass, but Indians are good on grass, so I guess there will be no lopsided affairs; rather, people will see neck-to-neck contests,” he said.

To a query about preparation, he said that all players were in fine touch as the team reached Islamabad on Sunday after attending a one-week training camp in Peshawar, “while recently we played several local tournaments as well”.

It is relevant to note here that back in 2019 India were supposed to visit Pakistan to play Davis Cup, but they refused to come under the pretext of security fears that led to the shifting of the tie to Kazakhstan.

In protest, Pakistan sent a junior team to play against India. This time too, India tried to get the tie shifted to a neutral country, but the International Tennis Federation and its tribunal rejected their plea.

Earlier, on Saturday, the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi had stated that visas to the Indian Davis Cup team, including the support staff, had been issued.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2024