LAHORE, April 4: Senior vice president of the UAE Tennis Federation Abdul Rehman Falek will make two important announcements for the development of tennis in Pakistan when he will be the chief guest on the final day of the inaugural edition of the Asiam-ul-Haq Tennis Cup in Islamabad on July 13.

“Abdul Rehman Falek will announce two international tournaments for Pakistan, besides giving the PTF two synthetic turfs,” PTF senior vice president Irshad Bhatti said.

He said due to security problems the ITF was not ready to award any international assignment to the PTF, but he was thankful to the UAE for lending a helping hand to Pakistan in this connection.

“The UAE tennis federation has asked from the PTF fool-proof security arrangements and also gave us a security map, which the PTF will fulfill to hold two international tournaments,” Irshad said.

He admitted that it was not the practice in the past that one country could obtain tournaments for another country, but the UAE would do it in good faith for Pakistan.

He said an ITF official Suresh Menon, who is incharge to develop the game in Asia, would also visit Pakistan in the first week of June to announce a programme to develop the game here.

He said that last warning to the ill-affiliated unit of the PTF had been given to improve their working, otherwise, they would not get any support from the national chapter.

He said after the first such warning 14 units were showing interest to work, while nine units were still under-performer.

He said the PTF was going to start a training programme for 100 trainers in Punjab from April 16. The training programme was of seven days, he said. The trainers from different districts of Punjab would attend it.