PAKISTAN which has produced a number of reputed tennis players during the last six decades lowered its stature by playing the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Zone Group III for the first time ever at Tehran in the year which has just gone by.

It was the saddest moment for the tennis fraternity back home to witness the fall of the sport from World Group playoff to the lowest ebb. The relegation was the result of two successive defeats that Pakistan suffered in 2007. Aisamul Haq’s absence is said to have made the whole difference.

History shows that Pakistan reached the World Group play-offs in 2005 but fell to Chile. The defeat marked the decline and in process Pakistan lost six ties before conquering at Tehran. Earlier, Pakistan was also one step away from qualifying for the World Group when losing the 1984 Eastern Zone final against Japan.

With a smooth run over minnows in the eight-team competition, Pakistan together with Malaysia earned promotion to group II in 2009.

Lahore-based Jibran Mohammadi made his debut at Tehran while other three players in the team include Aisamul Haq, Aqeel Khan and Asim Shafik. Rashid Malik, a former Davis Cupper, accompanied the team as non-playing captain. That was Aisam’s only appearance for the nation during the year.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), meanwhile, spent some 10 million rupees to appease the world governing body of the game, International Tennis Federation (ITF), by staging the three ITF juniors, as many ITF Futures for men’s and two ITF Futures for women’s. The only gain was that the ITF events attracted a good number of foreigners which dispelled the impression that Pakistan is not safe for sporting events.

The whole thing proved to be an exercise in futility as all home players failed to rise to the occasion and the events were dominated by foreigners.

Aisam, who gave the nation a joy after a considerable long time of 31 years, when due to sheer hard work he reached second round of prestigious men’s singles at Wimbledon in 2007, failed to repeat the feat and was knocked out in the second qualifying round. However, he gave his fans few moments to cheer about by reaching the singles main round of US Open. He travelled across the world and featured in a number of ITF events, mainly doubles, partnering with Rohan Bopanna.

Aqeel Khan visited India twice during the year — first in Feb to feature in three ITF Futures at New Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgoan and again in Aug to figure in two ITF Challengers and as many ITF Futures.

Pakistan juniors’ team also participated in Juniors Davis Cup at New Delhi. The team comprised Faizan Khurram, Heera Ashiq and Samir Iftikhar.

On the home front, Aqeel Khan swept all but one national ranking tournament. Three of half-a-dozen events he won were held in Karachi — Pakistan Open, National Hard Court and Subh-e-Nau Tennis Cup, Chief of Air Staff Khyber Cup at Peshawar, Federal Cup and National Clay Court at Islamabad. Jalil Khan landed the 25th Governor Punjab tennis cup at Faisalabad.Sara Mehboob dominated the ladies scene pocketing four of the seven titles while Natasha Afridi and Iman Qureshi captured two and one respectively.

The government honoured Nida Waseem by bestowing Pride of Performance in recognition of his performance.

Subh-e-Nau became the first NGO in the history of country’s sports when it was awarded associate membership by the PTF. Its chairperson Shahida Kauser Farooq was instrumental in organising four national ranking tournaments and disbursing some one million rupees prize money.