KARACHI, June 29: Squash legend Jahangir Khan on Friday praised tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq’s performance at the Wimbledon and called for more support at the government level to improve tennis standards in the country.

“With little support at the national level for tennis, it is mostly left to individuals to work hard and make a name for themselves, something that Aisam did and succeeded," said Jahangir who is currently the president of the World Squash Federation.

“Haroon Rahim was the best tennis player produced by Pakistan. I too was starting squash at the same time (in the 1970s) but, unfortunately, Haroon never got any support from the government despite beating US legend Jimmy Connors in a couple of events,” Jahangir told Dawn.

“The Pakistan government should identify talented, young players like Aisam, Aqeel and Nomi Qamar and send them to the United States so that they get the much-needed exposure,” the squash great pointed out. “Aisam has the talent but he only missed out against Safin because he didn't have enough top level exposure and experience.”

Meanwhile, one of Pakistan’s top tennis officials on Friday expressed hope that Aisam’s achievement at Wimbledon will attract more youngsters to the sport in the country.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) secretary Major Rashid Khan described Aisam’s achievement as ‘wonderful’ and said it will boost the game tremendously in Pakistan. “Aisam has done us proud and his success at top level tennis augurs well for Pakistan,” said Rashid. “We now have a hero whom other youngsters would definitely want to emulate.”

Aisam on Thursday hoped his performances at Wimbledon would inspire fellow Pakistanis to put down their cricket bats and try out a tennis racquet.

The 27-year-old may only have entered the second round — where he lost to former world No 1 Marat Safin of Russia on Thursday — but the otherwise cricket-obsessed Pakistani media highlighted his maiden Grand Slam singles appearance and his performance got rave reviews in the local press.

Major Rashid accepted that tennis in Pakistan required extra efforts for uplift but hoped that a way out could be found by attracting more sponsorship to help support the game and younger players in future.

“Cricket has overshadowed almost all other sports in the country but we hope that Aisam's achievement would give us a chance to popularize the game in Pakistan,” he said.

Aisam became only the fifth Pakistani player to feature in the main rounds of Wimbledon, the first since Haroon Rahim who recorded the best performance to date by reaching the third round in 1976.