PTF plans to set up national academy in Islamabad

KARACHI: The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is planning to set up a national academy soon at its tennis complex in Islamabad to address the longstanding need of a proper tennis academy in the country.

“We have been working on this project for the last 4-5 months,” secretary PTF Khalid Rehmani said while talking to this scribe.

“We are in talks with former tennis players like Hameed-ul-Haq and others to head the academy, and hopefully we will reach an agreement very soon,” he added.

He said the federation would provide boarding and lodging to up to 50 players from across the country. “PTF’s nine courts will be an added advantage for the academy,” he said.

He said they were working on a complete package. “If it gets the nod, we will announce the launch of the academy very soon,” he said.

He said Hameed was already running a small academy in Islamabad, while there were other small academies, too, which were being run by other people. “Rashid Malik’s academy is in Lahore. Mohammad Khalid is also running an academy at Model Town, Lahore, and Mushaf Zia’s academy is in Islamabad. But these are small academies and we need a proper academy with certain standards,” he added.

Hameed told “The News” that setting up a national academy was the need of the hour and it would save huge money of the players who were going to different countries for training. “Our players have to pay a lot of money for a few weeks’ training in countries like Thailand,” he said.

He said that the academy would provide the same kind of training to the players at affordable fees, and it would help all the players in the country.

He added that Mehboob Khan had excused from being the part of this project.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Khalid, who is an international player and represented Pakistan in Davis Cup for quite some time, lamented that there was no cutting-edge academy functioning in the country to train tennis players for international events. “We don’t have a proper academy in the country, neither at private, nor governmental level,” he said.

He said the small academies which were being run in the country were some kind of private tuitions that former players were giving to their students in different cities. “We need state-of-the-art academies to produce the best lot in order to promote the sport in the country. We are not even making our presence felt in Asia,” he added.