At the age of thirteen she was the National Tennis Champion (1982) and remained unbeaten for several years. More important, she is also the only Pakistani girl to have played the Grand Slam.

In other words she has participated in three of the most prominent tennis tournaments of the world – US Open (she was in the qualifying round of '84), French Open ('84, '85) and Australian Open (1984). She was awarded the President's Pride of Performance in 1997. She was awarded this for winning the ITF World Junior Championship, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1984 (women from 50 countries had participated in it).

But Aliya Rashid speaks of these accomplishments with modesty. “I'm known for my accomplishments as a tennis player, and for a long time in my life, I felt that it was enough. However, now I know that what the world thinks of me is not as important as what my family and close friends believe.”

She adds that “the most important thing in life is to keep one's God happy, and all the rest falls in place.” This spirituality has come to her with time. However, as she talks one realises that religiosity has always been a part of her life. For instance, when she played at Wimbledon, she wore a white shalwar and kameez and made head lines for doing so. The tournament rules did not allow her to wear track pants with a tee shirt so she got special permission to wear the national dress. She agrees that her performance would have been better had she worn the conventional dress, but she still does not regret her decision. For the other tournaments, she wore track suit pants with a tee shirt.

In a way, tennis was part of Aliya's inheritance. Her father Brig Nasir was the Army Tennis Champion for ten years, and was her coach and guide. Besides him, she had two of the best Pakistani tennis coaches: Saeed Meer who was himself a tennis legend, and Zulfiqar Rahim, her coach in England. Rahim now runs a tennis academy in Islamabad.

When she was playing tennis full time, Aliya would practice for at least six hours daily which also included fitness exercises such as skipping, running etc. She represented Pakistan as a Junior Tennis player in England, France, Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Philippines. All these foreign trips were funded by the government; PIA paid for the air tickets and Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Tennis Federation paid for other expenses.

When asked what qualities are needed in a good tennis player? She feels that determination, hard work, physical fitness are the most important. She thinks that this is generally true of the Pakistanis who are a talented lot though they lack stamina. “And that is where I fell short also, otherwise, I too could have been a world champion. One has to be very careful with one's diet: take lots of proteins, fibre, veggies and fruits. Fatty foods must be avoided at all costs and this is where our sports people lack in self discipline.”

When asked if she would like to give a message to parents of talented children, her advice is simple: “Be very encouraging and do not ridicule the child, when he or she loses a match. Winning and losing is part of the game; but giving one's best is what matters the most.” Aliya points out that her own best match was with an American tennis player which she lost. “But it was my best performance.”

She still also remembers her coach's advice in this regard — to not lose hope at any point and keep trying till the last point has been played.

At present she is working as a grade twenty officer in a Federal Government organization. She lives in Islamabad with her daughter, who is an A Level student. Having learnt a lot in life through sports she is taking life's challenges with sportsman spirit; her back hand shots and straight aces also come in handy!