KARACHI, Sept 8: A hectic schedule awaits tennis players across the country in the remaining period of the year which envisaged domestic and international activities, an official of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) said on Thursday.

The Islamabad Open, which carries a total purse of Rs100,000, gets into action at the PTF Complex, Islamabad, from Sept 12. Country’s top players Aqeel Khan, Jalil Khan and Yasir Khan were among others who will be vying for honours in the weeklong contest. The brothers’ trio leaves for Islamabad on Monday noon.

A lucrative purse of over Rs300,000 will be at stake in the Federal Cup, which is a national ranking event and begins at the PTF Complex from Oct 3.

Two more national ranking events, one at Bahawalpur and the other at Islamabad (UBL Trophy) are also in line before the season culminates.

In addition, the PTF plans to stage an Inter-unit competition towards the end of the year.

Meanwhile, two players — Nofil Kaleem and Hasan Abdal — will fly to Dhaka by the end of the month to compete in Asian under-14 tennis championship. The travel expenses will be borne by the players.

Similarly, M Abid and Hussain Manzoor, who hails from Lahore, are set to compete in an under-18 tournament which has been planned to commemorate the national day of Tajikistan later this month.

Another under-14 player Mohammad Mudassar is due to leave for Bangkok on Saturday to attend the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) High Evaluation Performance programme, which begins from the following day.

Business tycoon Aqeel Karim Dhedhi has agreed to spend money on creating additional hard courts and other facilities in the sprawling PTF Complex.

“Yes he has acceded to our request to build four hard courts, swimming pool and a gymnasium,” president PTF, Kaleem Imam, told Dawn. Presently, the complex has facilities of nine clay courts and a hard court.