24 foreign players to figure in BB Shaheed tennis

ISLAMABAD: A galaxy of international tennis players have been drawn to figure in the third edition of the $15,000 Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Futures III tennis tournament from December 18 at the Islamabad Tennis Complex.

Senator Taj Haider (patron), Senator Farhatullah Babar and Fazale Subhan (secretary Organising Committee) briefed the media Tuesday on the salient features of the tournament.

“It is yet another effort on the part of organisers to promote the game in the country. Our legendary leader Benazir Bhutto Shaheed was a big supporter of sports and involvement of youth in healthy activities. The event that was initiated two years back was an effort to promote BB’s teaching,” Farhatullah Babar said.

Taj said the tournament now had turned international. “It was all domestic two years back. Now it has got the status of international tennis and that of the stature of Futures event,” he said.

Russian Ivan Nedelko would again be No 1 seed for the event with Spanish Enrique Lopez-Perez as No 2.Besides former world No 65 Pere Riba, hosts of Russian, German and Indian players have been drawn to compete in the event.

Around 24 foreign players are expected to figure in the tournament. Besides foreigners, all top seed locals would be the part of the event.

Taj said one of the aims of the tournament was to promote peace. “Pakistan deserves better deal from international sports federations. The country is safe to host international events. Our effort is to show the world that we are capable of hosting international players in safe and sound environment.”

Farhatullah said the more Pakistan would host international sports event, the better it would be for spreading positive image of the country and nation in the world. “It would also help discourage negative activities. Youth’s involvement in sports would spread positive image around,” he said.

He also advised India to keep politics out of sports and resume sports relations with Pakistan. “Through sports both countries can develop their relations.”Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto is expected to declare the tournament open on December 18 — the first day of the main round while Asifa Bhutto is likely to distribute prizes on the final day.

Tournament Director Kamran Khalil on the occasion said that all the arrangements have been finalised to host the event in a befitting manner.“Though we had some problems in readjusting two tennis courts following local administration’s decision to widen the Embassy Road, we have managed to adjust these according to the ITF requirements.”

Kamran hoped that the tournament would be a success. “We have successfully hosted two previous tournaments on the same venue and hopefully this time around it would turn out to be yet another success.”He said that two days of rain had made courts perfect for the event. Besides the international, ladies and junior domestic events will also be staged on the sideline of the event.