KARACHI, Jan 23: Tennis ace Nida Waseem, who has rejoined the local circuit, foresees a ‘grim, bleak and poor’ future of ladies tennis in Pakistan.

“The standard has drastically declined and the participation is lacking,” she told Dawn at the City Sports Complex on Monday.

Nida, 24, who is a final year student of Bar at Law at Boston College, London, said she is currently here on leave and will compete in all the tournaments including the National Games.

She felt sorry that Pakistan No 1 Sara Mehboob could not make it to the ranking tourney. “One can count the women players on finger tips,” she remarked.

Recalling the past she said besides her, there were a number of equally good women players including the Rahim sisters — Mariam and Haleema — Farah Khurshid, Mehwish Chishtie to name a few who used to give tough time in the domestic circuit.

Unbeaten since a long time, Nida who crowned Yaqoob Advady ranking title last year, asked the PTF to encourage women players’ participation by sponsoring at least top two in the ranking events.

She also underlined the need for holding frequent training camps to arrest the decline.