PTF seeks fast clay court in Sri Lanka

KARACHI: Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) would request the Sri Lankan tennis authorities to keep the clay court at which they play their tie against China in March fast and slippery.

“The clay court in Colombo is close to the seaside and it was quite fast and slippery when we played against Sri Lanka in 2013,” said Aqeel Khan while talking to ‘The News’. “But when we played against Kuwait last year the court was quite slow,” he added.

The country’s top player added that the slow condition of that court would not suit them. “We asked the PTF management to request the authorities there to keep the court as it is, fast and slippery, because it suits us,” said Aqeel.

Talking about Pakistan’s chances in the tie, Aqeel said the Chinese team was strong as it had two players within the 150 rankings. “They are better on hard court, so playing on clay would surely benefit us and if things went well we could win this tie,” said Aqeel.

When contacted, PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani said they had had a discussion with the team players and coaching panel on this issue lately. “We will make a request to the Sri Lankan authorities in this regard since this is our home tie and we want to support our players as much as we can,” added Khalid.

“Our top players have demanded this, so we have to do something about it. We have chosen this neutral venue on the recommendations of Aisam and Aqeel, and hopefully we will win this tie,” hoped Khalid.

PTF will hold trials for Davis Cup tie on February 24 and a camp will be established in Sri Lanka. Pakistan, ranked 37th, are playing their Group-1 Asia/Oceania Zone tie against China, ranked 32nd, from March 4-6.

“Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan are exempted from trials. We will try to send the team on the 26th so that we could hold a camp to acclimatise our players with the conditions there,” said Khalid.