LAHORE, April 24: The HBL National Open grass court tennis championship, is all set to start on Sunday with added incentives at the Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) courts in Bagh-i-Jinnah , but it may have to go into action without the blessing of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) which refuses to recognise it as a ranking event.

The championship will continue till May 2.

The event will also see foreign players from India and Bangladesh vying for huge cash prizes worth Rs 300,000 offered for the very first time in the country, but, the PTF is not impressed as it does not accept players' earning ranking points.

"It is a technical issue (which) the PLTA has raised before the PTF and hopefully the matter will be resolved amicably," said PLTA senior-vice-president, Rao Iftikhar while replying to a question at a press conference on Saturday.

The PTF believes international players' participation in the event requires that the ATP award them points, but PLTA is trying to convince the central body that players deserve points despite this ibeing a national tournament, Iftikhar said.

Secretary PLTA, Zahid Zafar said that four Indians and as many Bangladeshis had confirmed their participation.

Two of the Indians, would compete in the men's open and the remaining in veterans, while Bangladeshis would feature in the boys under-17 event, he added.

In all, 185 entries had been received for all the seven events of the National event. Besides the men's open, and under-17, the competitions would also be held in men's open doubles, boys under-13 singles, ladiesopen singles, veterans above 45-years doubles and veterans above 55-years doubles.

He said that Pakistan tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and all the other top ranking players including Aqeel Khan, Nomi Qamar and Aasim Shafiq hadconfirmed their participation. It will be Aisam's first appearance inNational championship since 1997.

The player's decision to play after a long time and that too after his refusal to represent Pakistan in back-to-back Davis Cup ties in Bangladesh and Taiwan this year, will not certainly send a good message to the PTF.

Pakistan lost both the ties 5-0 each.

The men's singles winner would get Rs 50,000, he said.

Zulfiqar Chaudhry heads the technical committee while former Davis Cupper and Pakistan coach Rashid Malik has been appointed as tournament director, he said adding that the PLTA would also host two ITF tournaments in Lahore from Aug 18 to 28.

In all, the PTF has got four ITF tournaments out of which PLTA has been awarded two. Karachi and Islamabad will organize the remaining two tournaments, he said.

According to him, the PLTA would also stage a Saarc tournament in November this year.