Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

is not a very popular sport and Pakistanis compete in very few international events. The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) organises the game in the country.

History

Ahmad Hasan Khokhar was the first Pakistani to represent his country in a

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament, playing at Wimbledon in 1948. Haroon Rahim was a very successful player. Belonging to a family of prominent tennis players, he was the youngest ever singles national champion as well as the youngest to play for Pakistan in Davis Cup competition at 15 years of age. He has not only been the highest ranked singles player in Pakistan's tennis history (34th in October 1977) but was also the winner of a number of ATP Singles and Doubles titles. Lately, Aisam ul Haq Qureshi created history in Pakistani tennis, as he reached the finals of

2010 US Open – Men's Doubles Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes were the defending champions, but lost in the first round to Martin Damm and Filip Polášek 6–7(7–9), 6–3, 6–4. Bob and Mike Bryan won in the final 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–4), against Rohan Bopanna and A ...

and

2010 US Open – Mixed Doubles Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott were the defending champions, but lost in the first round to Gisela Dulko and Pablo Cuevas. Liezel Huber and Bob Bryan won the title, defeating Květa Peschke and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in the final 6–4, 6� ...

. The Pakistan Davis Cup team have previously reached the world group play-offs. Tennis events are very rare in Pakistan and there is hardly an international tennis event, apart from ATP tournaments.

Davis Cup

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Played its first Davis Cup Europe Zone Match against Switzerland at

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...

in 1948. Its first Davis Cup tie of Eastern Zone win was against Sri Lanka, with a score of 4-0, played by Munir Pirzada, Qutubudin Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed and Zulfiqar Rahim. Pakistan qualified for the Final of the Eastern Zone in 1984 by beating some of the strongest teams of the Asian Group: Malaysia in January 1984, Indonesia in March 1984 and Thailand in May 1984. Pakistan lost the final against Japan. Due to the change in format of the Davis Cup Eastern Zone to Asia Oceania, Pakistan secured a place in Group-II in 1988. Pakistan again reached the Final but lost to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. The Pakistan Team distinguished themselves in international tennis competitions when they beat strong teams such as New Zealand in 2018 and Thailand in 2019 and qualified for the World Group Playoff for the first time in the history of Pakistani Tennis. It was also one step away from qualifying for the World Group when losing the 1984 Eastern Zone Final against Japan.

List of successful tennis players

Pakistan has produced many successful tennis players, particularly in the Davis Cup (Asia region). They include: *

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Punjabi, ; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the ...

* Aqeel Khan * Haroon Rahim * Marriam Naeem Rahim (The only female Pakistani tennis player who holds the record of being No. 1 for 10 record years) * Khwaja Saeed Hai * Munir Pirzada * Saeed Meer * Hameed-ul-Haq * Islam-ul-Haq * Muhammad Khaliq * Muhammad Naeem Mir (The only Pakistani who achieved highest level in singles event, reaching semi-finals of the most prestigious event in tennis junior Wimbledon 1956 * Mushaf Zia * Rashid Malik Three Pakistani players have enjoyed notable success: Haroon Rahim who played Davis Cup at the age of 15 years, second Hamid-ul-haq who played Davis Cup till the age of 35 years and third Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi who is notable for playing longest Rubber for 5 hrs 20 minutes against Mark Nielson from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in September 2004 at

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

and longest tie also against New Zealand which lasted 16 hrs 20 minutes. Gibran Khan played for the Pakistan Davis Cup Team and won the Pakistani Junior National Open as a teenager

References

{{Asia topic, Tennis in

History

Davis Cup

List of successful tennis players

See also

References