PTF ropes in ITF support for junior programme

KARACHI: For the first time in its history the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is initiating a Junior Development Programme and Coaches Education Programme with the help of International Tennis Federation (ITF).
PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani told ‘The News’ that ITF’s junior development programme is producing new talent in regional countries since long, and now PTF has decided to start it for the first time in order to create new pool of players for Davis Cup ties.
“The Junior Development Programme will commence in March. It will continue in cycles for two years. We will select 50 junior players (boys and girls) from all over the country for training in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Islamabad,” he said.
The centres they would get training at would be Modern Club in Karachi, Peshawar Club in Peshawar (PTF has got permission from Pakistan Air Force to train four players at the courts of the club), PTF Complex in Islamabad, and Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore,” Rehmani said.
“Our target is to have players of under-16 to 18 in Davis Cup trials in 2016 produced by this programme. Similarly, we would be having players of under-14 to 16 for Junior Davis Cup,” he added.
Regarding Coaches Education Programme, he said that ITF is quite happy that we are starting this programme soon. “ITF and Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) have agreed to bear the fees of a level-3 coach from Thailand whom we can invite anytime this year to start this programme. We would only provide lodging, boarding, and ticket to the coach,” he said.
PTF, he added, would invite the coach for 15 days anytime this year to train our coaches and we have started raising funds in this regard.
“We have 15 coaches who have done Level-1 course but they are inactive. There are two coaches who have done Level-2 and one is about to complete his Level-3 course. We are hoping that we would successfully implement this programme to increase our coaching base,” he said.
Rehmani said that currently the Level-1 coaching course is conducted in the country through Olympic Solidarity initiative under the aegis of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). “We had conducted one in 2013 and the next would be in next two years. This is not enough, so we have decided to start this another programme,” he concluded.