Seventeen-year-old Ushna Sohail has emerged as national tennis champion, beating Sara Mehboob last year. She belongs to a famous tennis family of Lahore of Khwaja Iftikhar, who was the Indo-Pak champion. Pakistan's top tennis prodigy Aisamul Haq and Samir Iftikhar, another upcoming lad, are Ushna's cousins.

In a chat with Dawn during the Fed Cup's trials here at the picturesque Bagh-i-Jinnah synthetic courts, Ushna said her family background inspired her to make a name in tennis. Ushna is currently at 337th in the under-18 world ranking.

Although she has a long journey to achieve a milestone in the world ranking, she has a strength of mind for it and she vows to have a landmark achievement to serve the nation in tennis like her other family members.

“I want to play in the WTA women circuit from next year with better ranking and, if God willing, I will achieve it,” she said.

Last year she participated in almost 25 ITF grade four and five tournaments in different countries.

“I am doing my best to achieve something special and my last year's heavy schedule has helped me a lot to move forward with great hopes, besides making me richer in experience,” she said.

Ushna belongs to a well-off family, but she says all credit goes to her parent for extending her every help to all her inland and foreign tours. To keep it continuing for years will not be an easy job and for that reasons she emphasizes the need of sponsorship from business houses.

“My mother is a doctor and my father is also a government officer, and they are doing a great job for me. I don't know how much budget they are allocating for my tennis activities, but it must be in millions,” she said.

“There should be a proper system available in the country to provide facilities to the upcoming talent, which is in abundance, but it is being wasted because of lack of funds,” she said.

He said the PTF should also come forward to make arrangements for giving international exposure and experience to young players as it was the only way to improve the international ranking.

Ushna, who is facing ankle injury, is appearing in trials for the Fed Cup which is going to be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The Pakistan Tennis Federation has specially arranged trials only for her to check her fitness before picking her in the team.

She is thankful to the PTF for arranging trials for her and she expressed hope for a good show in the Fed Cup, if selected. Pakistan is appearing in the Fed Cup after a long period of 12 years.

Ushna, a student of Davis Cupper Rashid Malik, has been doing her training for five hours daily to keep her fit for national and international assignments.

“I have set my goals in tennis and I am confident to be in top 100 in the near future and then to make my mark in WTA events worldwide,” she concluded.

The Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) has decided to hold nine national ranking tournaments this year. PLTA President Rao Iftikhar said it was decided in a meeting to organize competitions in various divisional headquarters of Punjab. Dates for these tournaments would be announced after getting confirmation from the national chapter of the PLTA, he said.

“We will adjust the schedule of these tournaments with the programme of the Pakistan Tennis Federation to avoid any clash with other national activities,” he said.

Mr Iftikhar said the entire PLTA schedule would provide a much-needed exposure to all national players to improve their ranking.

He said the PLTA would also organize six summer coaching camps of two-month duration in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur and Multan.

The inter-camp competition would be held in Lahore among the best players of camps, he said.

Mr Iftikhar said the PLTA had also chalked out a plan to lay synthetic courts in various divisional headquarters of the province to promote the game.

The South Asian Baseball Federation has been formed in Lahore this week. Representatives of Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka visited Lahore to attend the inaugural meeting.

Pakistan Baseball Federation president Shaukat Javed and secretary Khawar Shah have been elected as president and secretary of the South Asian body. Pakistan is a top ranking country of the South Asian Region in tennis and the formation of the body will pave the way for including the game in the Saarc competition in future. Hopefully, Pakistan will be a strong team to earn a gold medal in the Saarc competition.