PTF refuses to oblige Indonesia

KARACHI: Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) has refused to change dates of its Davis Cup tie against Indonesia and as a result International Tennis Federation (ITF) has asked Indonesia to go for a neutral venue.
It has been learnt that Indonesia requested ITF to change the tie dates (July 17-19) because both Pakistan and Indonesia being Muslim countries would be having Eid, a religious festival, on these dates, which would severely affect the arrangements.
“Indonesia, in order to strengthen its case, also mentioned that they would be short of staff and there would be security problems if the tie was held in Eid days,” said a source while talking to ‘The News’.
“They requested ITF to convince PTF for change in dates, but PTF, after taking its top two players, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan, on board refused to change the dates.
“PTF informed the ITF that due to Aisam’s ATP schedule Pakistan would play on the same dates on which the tie has already been scheduled,” added the source.
ITF then told Indonesia that if they could not manage the tie in those dates they should go for a neutral venue and convey their final decision to ITF by April 2, said the source.
According to the original schedule, Pakistan are to travel to Indonesia for the second round of Asia/Oceania Zone Group II. Indonesia lead the series 2-1. “The likely situation is that Indonesia will not go for the expensive neutral venue option and instead reschedule the tie on their hard courts,” added the source.
PTF changed the dates of the first tie of Davis Cup 2014 against Vietnam from January 31-February 2 to February 14-16 on the request of Vietnam as the earlier dates were falling in the Chinese New Year.
But the PTF management took this decision without talking to its top players, Aisam and Aqeel. As a result, Aisam announced he was not available for the tie due to his other commitments. “Had they asked me, I would have said ‘no’ to any change in dates because they were going to affect us. No player of Vietnam is on the ATP tour, so no-change in the dates would not have affected them,” said Aisam.
However, Aisam joined the team in Vietnam due to his early exit in Rotterdam ATP championship.
Meanwhile, Aqeel said that Pakistan had 35 percent chances against Indonesia as they were a good team and would be playing on their own courts. “The tie will be difficult because of Indonesia’s home advantage and extremely hot weather,” he added.
Aqeel said it was very unlikely that Aisam would play singles matches in the tie, so the team would have to make extra efforts to win this tie.