ISLAMABAD: Tennis stars Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan will be Pakistan’s key men for their Davis Cup tie against Kuwait in March.

The duo will be joined by Abid Ali Akbar and Ahmed Chaudhry in the four-member team named by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) on Thursday.

The Asia/Oceania Group II first-round tie will be played at a neutral venue in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo from March 4-6.

It was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan but the International Tennis Federation (ITF) did not allow the PTF to host it in the country due to security issues.

“This is our tournament,” a senior PTF official told Dawn while requesting not to be named. “... but we will hold this event in Sri Lanka as the ITF didn’t allow us to hold this event here due to security reasons.”

Abid and Ahmed were selected through trials which were held here recently while Aisam and Aqeel, the country’s top-ranked players, were exempted from the trials.

A PTF spokesman informed that Rashid Malik, a veteran of many Davis Cup ties, has been named as the non-playing captain of the team.

Aisam and Aqeel are currently abroad with the former most recently taking part at the Australian Open while Abid and Ahmed will be making their Davis Cup debuts.

“Abid was selected due to his outstanding performance in the recently-held Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan championship [where he won the trophy],” the PTF spokesman said.

“At the trials Abid also beat higher-ranked Mohammad Abid and Yasir, who represented the country in the previous editions of the Davis Cup.”

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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