Recovering Aisam likely to play Wimbledon, Davis Cup

KARACHI: Pakistan’s tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi is recovering from his knee injury and is expected to play both Wimbledon and Davis Cup tie against Indonesia next month.
“He is getting better; yesterday he did some light practice,” said Aisam’s father Ehtisham-ul-Haq while talking to ‘The News’. “He has entered his name in doubles event in Wimbledon and we are hopeful that he will be able to play both the grand slam and the Davis Cup tie,” he added.
Aisam got the injury during Aegon Open, Nottingham, UK, last Wednesday, which forced him and his Italian partner Simon Bolleli to give walkover to their opponents in the quarter-finals despite excellent performance in the first round.
Ehtisham said that Aisam’s match is probably on Wednesday so he has two more days to heal but this is a best-of-five game and could create challenges for him. “Regarding his availability for Davis Cup tie against Indonesia, I can say he is available but again it depends on how much progress he makes in Wimbledon,” added Ehtisham.
For example, he added, if Aisam entered the second week of Wimbledon it would be difficult for him to be available for the Davis Cup tie. “Changes in tie dates has made it challenging for Aisam to be easily available for the tie, but he is always very enthusiastic about playing Davis,” added Aisam’s father.
Aisam and his regular doubles partner G Muller, of Luxemburg, are unseeded in this grand slam and are drawn against B Becker of Germany and R Maytin of Venezuela in the first round.
Aisam has played Wimbledon 10 times and his best performance came in 2010 when he reached the quarter-finals.
Secretary Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) Khalid Rehmani has said that Ahmed Chohdri would be the fourth player of the team if Aisam pulled out or failed to recover from his injury. “Our first choice is Aisam and we want him in the team,” said Khalid.
The PTF secretary added that they had not yet received any thing from Aisam about his availability.
Meanwhile, PTF started its camp on Monday in Islamabad for the preparations of Davis Cup under the supervision of former Pakistan tennis player Hameed-ul-Haq, who is also the non-playing captain of the team.
Abid Ali Akbar has joined the camp and Aqeel Khan will reach the capital by Monday night.
Ahmed Chohdri is expected to come back to Pakistan soon from Vienna where he was on his coaching assignment.
Pakistan face Indonesia in the semi-final of Asia/Oceania Group-II from July 14-16 at Plexipave (Outdoor) surface of Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Stadium, Jakarta, Indonesia. Hameed was part of the team that defeated Indonesia 4-1 in their last meeting in 1984.