HONG KONG: Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) President Anil Kumar Khanna has said that after the clearance given by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the Hong Kong team should have visited Pakistan to play Davis Cup Asian-Oceania Group-II tie against the hosts.
“The ITF has its own security system analysis and they have termed Islamabad a safe place to hold the Davis Cup tie after a thorough investigation and their security personnel reports, so in my opinion, Hong Kong should not have refused to play in Pakistan,” stated Anil.
Appreciating the efforts of Pakistan Tennis Federation Chief Salim Saifullah and patron Dilawar Abbas, Khanna asserted that the way the PTF has been doing their work sincerely; time is not far, when Pakistan tennis will flourish and start reaping fruits at international level. “It is unfortunate that Davis Cup ties didn’t happen in Pakistan so long due to which their youth has less interest in this game, but even then I think future of tennis in Pakistan is bright,” he stated.
Anil has said that there are three Cs, which play very important role in the promotion tennis in any country. “The first C stands for courts, as without having proper infrastructure, no country can progress in any particular field. In my opinion, every country should provide easy and neighborhood facility to every player, as if any player has to come from too far for practice purpose, he/she will find it too tough to continue it. The better and easy access to tennis courts can certainly help in raising interest of the game among the youngsters.”
“The second C stands for coaching, which has greater significance in any game. Coaching is a great source of grooming the talent as well as it provides opportunities to tennis players to get employment by applying their skills to the beginners. The ITF and ATF also pondering over providing coaches education programs to their associates to improve the coaches’ skills,” he explained.
“The third C is competition, as the more a country conducts the competitions, the better and shinning talent they will get. In India, around 850 tournaments are conducted per year, which means 17 events per week, so by holding competitions in such a huge number will surely contribute well in boosting the game,” he added.
He also put emphasis upon computerizing the entire data of the players and the federation as it helps in keeping everything in apple pie order. “If a federation puts a complete record of their players in computer and keeps on updating rankings and other important records on their websites, it helps in encouraging the players, who remain in touch with the sites and makes extra efforts to improve their rankings. In India, everything is computerized and updated now and this healthy struggle is benefitting them a lot,” he concluded.
