Dubai: Pakistan tennis star Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi has made a fervent plea to the international community to give his country an opportunity to stage big sporting events.
Qureshi teamed up with India’s Rohan Bopanna to capture his first-ever ATP 500 doubles title with a swift 6-4, 6-3 win over the top-seeded pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor at the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open on Saturday.
Being the only Pakistan player to reach the final of a Grand Slam — which he achieved in 2010, competing in both mixed doubles (with Kveta Peschke) and men’s doubles (with Bopanna) at the US Open — Qureshi has traditionally led Pakistan’s Davis Cup campaigns.
Qureshi had been at the helm of Pakistan’s Davis Cup campaigns and in 2005, he took them to the World Group Play-Offs for the first time, before being beaten by Chile.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team escaped a terror attack — an incident that stopped international cricket teams touring the country and deprived them of the rights to co-host the 2011 ICC World Cup.
Qureshi, who had been a crusader of peace between India and Pakistan, teamed up with his doubles partner Bopanna in creating a campaign Stop War, Start Tennis with the aim of playing a match on the border between the two countries.
“Back home, the perception of safety is changing but in the international community it is not. We still have not been able to play any Davis Cup tie there for the last 80 years and it’s a very unfortunate thing. Ever since people have started to know me and know tennis, I have not been able to play any international matches at home. I humbly request the international community to start having sports activities in Pakistan as well. We are a big country of 180 million people and there are a lot of areas that have not even been hit by terrorism or anything,” he said.
“We can easily play Davis Cup ties and other international sports events, but nobody has been willing to give it a shot. It’s very frustrating. Now again in Davis Cup, we are supposed to play Philippines at home but we are going away again to Philippines, so I don’t know how you can promote tennis if there are not any international events going on,” he rued.
“It’s a mindset. They don’t want to come and see if conditions are getting better or not. I can understand some parts next to Afghanistan, but it’s a big country,” he said.
If I can go and play in a place like Da Lat City in Vietnam that not many know of — fly to Ho Chi Minh, then go to Da Lat City, and then take a three-hours bus to play in the city — they can do it in Pakistan, he added.
“Fly to Lahore or Karachi and play in Faisalabad or Multan or Hyderabad or whatever. But they are not even willing to take that chance, and they say no straightaway without even coming and seeing the conditions. I think that’s not fair,” he said.
“Hopefully, the international community and the media can do their bit and give Pakistan a chance and host a tie back home.”
