Saeed Meer remained prominent on the Davis Cup scene for 10 long years. He was one of the fastest servers of his time and also the highest paid athlete from South Asia.

Like any other Pakistani kid, Meer grew up playing cricket on the streets. Despite being an ordinary cricketer, he somehow got admission in the DJ Science College on the sports quota. Meer did not pick up a tennis racquet until his sisters started admiring their neighbour, who started featuring in the newspaper after playing tennis for just a couple of years, while his cricket was heading nowhere. Meer, who was around 16 years old at that time, felt a bit jealous of his neighbour and decided to have a go at this game. Being an agile kid, he knew he can play any sport. “I knew I was a good athlete and I can play any game. I joined the tennis club that was in front of my house. Within no time, I started beating other players there,” he shares. It was the start of a magnificent journey.

It wasn’t long before Meer started playing tennis at a higher level in Karachi and got the better of all the players in the city at the time. Seeing the potential, he was sent to Lahore to compete in different tournaments, where he put on a good show.

After conquering the tennis fraternity of Pakistan, the stage was set for Meer to get in the Pakistan team, which, in 1966, was flying to Russia for a tournament. He belonged to Karachi and the team was to be selected in Lahore. Rivalry between the two cities is no secret. The selectors asked him what his name was. “I said Saeed Meer. Then they were like: ‘You are Kashmiri, not a Karachiite, call yourself a Kashmiri, a Punjabi’.” Meer couldn’t win the tournament but he made his opponents work hard to win.

A heart-to-heart with Saeed Meer, a legend in his own right

The next stop for Meer was the World University Games in Tokyo, where he managed to reach the third round. He was pleased with his performance, simply because he lacked facilities in Pakistan. Whatever he was achieving was due to his own hard work.

Meer got a job with Pakistan International Airlines, which helped him excel further in his career. He posessed a sharp mind and was always hungry for success. He used to write letters and send his news clippings along with them to different authorities conducting tournaments in different parts of the world. “I used to tell them about my achievements and my wanting to play in their events.” He further says, “the government was not supporting me but being a PIA employee, at least my tickets were free, so I was able to travel.”

Tennis courts have always been dominated by western players. The presence of an Asian player, especially a Pakistani, was a treat for the spectators. “Spectators always loved watching the odd one and if there were two different players in the tournament among the white players, it used to catch the attention of the audience. I used to be a wonder for people. They used to ask me where I learnt tennis, and to tell them something about my country, etc.”

Meer did not pick up a tennis racquet until his sisters started admiring his neighbour, who started featuring in the newspaper after playing tennis for just a couple of years, while, his cricket was heading nowhere.

At the mid point of his career, Meer was coached by Stan Sekaz, who may not have been a very good player himself, but was a professor of physics and mathematics. Stan carefully observed the serve of top players and read their aerodynamics. He taught Meer to serve keeping in mind the laws of physics and mathematics. Alone he practiced this hundreds and thousands of times. At the end of the day he became the fastest server of the world.

But he did not realise that he could shoot thunderbolts until he went to play in the Swiss Open and was rejected by the organisers outright. They said that they had not received any request from him and couldn’t therefore let a rookie play against top players. But Meer was destined to be a star during this tour. Disheartened Meer reached the club early in the morning when the players were yet to arrive and sought permission from the authorities to practice a bit in the empty court, which was granted. That was the turning point of his career. He explains, “They saw my serve and rushed to me to inform me about a vacant spot in the tournament.”

Meer soon caught the foreign media’s attention. He was even featured on a magazine cover in Switzerland and it boosted his confidence big time.

With such a serve, anyone was meant to win big tournaments, but, Meer wasn’t that ‘anyone’. He accepts this. “My ground game wasn’t impressive, my serve was extremely powerful.” Moreover he was an employee of PIA and they weren’t too pleased about him wandering around the world playing while taking salary from the organisation. So he had to return home every three or four months. There were not many local tournaments for him to play at home, which hurt his game a lot. “There were hardly any tournaments in Pakistan. There were no proper courts. In the west, players used to get a lot more exposure. You always improve by playing against good players. I wasn’t playing against top notch players here,” he says.

Meer rates his participation in the 1973 Wimbledon as the world no 74 as his biggest achievement. One of his memorable moments was winning the Third World Invitation Classic. When Ziaul Haq came into power, he asked Col Munir to promote tennis in the region. Thus a grand tournament was organised where the top players from 117 countries were invited to play in Islamabad. Zia asked the participants to put their best show. He was himself present in the arena to witness the final of the tournament and handed over the trophy to the winner, Meer himself. Meer calls the win fortunate. “Fortunately, I won the tournament, although, I had no chance, but, I just won it. It was a huge moment for me.”

Meer invited Ilie Nstase, the former world no 1, to play an exhibition match against him in Pakistan. He was considered to be extremely handsome and was admired by girls all around the globe, even Benazir Bhutto wanted to see him play.

The match started and he crushed Ilie in the first set by 6-1 in just 11 minutes. The funds were to be raised with respect to the number of spectators in the KMC Sports Complex. Thus Meer decided to drag the match a little, which turned out to be a disaster. He exclaims, “You just cannot do something like that with a worldclass player, that too the top player in the world. I lost that match and I lost it because of my non-professional behaviour,” he adds.

This was a historical match, televised live by the Pakistan Television.

Meer has always believed in spreading his knowledge among youngsters and promote the game in the region. For him it is a sacred deed to teach others what he had learnt. During the latter part of his career, he wrote a book called Play Tennis in Six Weeks. The book had pictures illustrating different strokes and positions for learning the game. He says, “When I started playing tennis, there was hardly anyone to teach me how to play the game properly. I wanted to facilitate everyone with what I have learnt. I wanted to help especially those underprivileged children who could not afford to come to me and learn the game,” Meer does not deny the fact that apart from coaching children he wanted to make it his means of income as well.

Just like he once penned letters during his early playing days to tournament organisers, he again wrote, this time to around 130 heads of states to distribute his book in schools and colleges of their respective countries. The Malaysian government paid him a huge amount to get his book distributed in schools all over the country. Around 80 heads of states whom Meer wrote letters to replied to him, which included Gen Parvez Musharraf. He asked for 100 copies and sent a cheque along with the request.

“By promoting the game here, I tried to show them how one can earn money as well as glory by pursuing tennis.” A player that qualifies to play in a major tournament like Wimbledon and even loses in the first round will get £23,000.

Most prestigious clubs in Karachi have their coaches trained by Meer. These coaches might have ended up doing menial jobs had it not been for him to have held their hand and taught them tennis. He has contributed extensively to the cause of tennis, directly and indirectly.

Meer’s daughter Shayan Meer runs her own production house and has made video tutorials to help children understand tennis better. Meer wants all schools and colleges to show these tutorials to students. They are specially made for children.

Striving to spread knowledge to a new level, he asked, H.K. Niazi, the former administrator of Defence Housing Authority, to give him a space, where he could have two tennis courts to teach kids. He gave him the place, where the Royal Rodale Club is located now for Rs300,000 annually for 10 years in 1989. Meer got special children to inaugurate his academy. He wanted to use tennis as a tool to help them. The legend, had a moderate monthly fee, children were provided racquets, balls and other facilities like swimming and gym within the premises. Moreover, there were scholarship programmes for underprivileged children. Meer tells us, “I used to coach everyone, who had the passion to learn tennis. It was my way of paying back to my country. Whatever I am, it is because of Pakistan.”

Today Meer coaches tennis at the DHA Beach View Club. He wishes he could open a proper academy though. If provided a place for an academy, he can mould more raw talent into world class players for sure.

Twitter: @ArslanShkh

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine December 27th, 2015