Seniors tennis event marred by walkovers

KARACHI: The 23rd Maple Leaf Cement Pakistan ITF Seniors World Ranking Tennis Championship being played in Lahore has been undermined by 11 walkovers in the first three days.
On the first day of the championship, Wakeel Khan got walkover against Abdul Rashid; Abdurrahim Khan got walkover against Gurdarshan Singh; Fayyaz Nazir got walkover against Avneesh Raghuvanshi; Syed Naveed Hussain Rizvi got walkover against Khalid Khan; Nawaz Muhammad Nawaz Afzal got walkover against Jehanzeb Khan; and Mobin Malik got walkover against Kishore Choudhary.
On the second day, Umar Ayaz Khalil got walkover against Dilip Mohanty; Rashid Ahmad Malik got walkover against Abdurrahim Khan; the pair of Prasad Apte and Harsh Sharma got walkover against the Pakistani duo of Umar Ayaz Khalil and Irfanullah Khan; and Irfanullah Khan got walkover against Muhammad Faisal.
And on the third day, Mobin Malik got walkover against second seed Naresh Khatri in 55 singles category.
“A few Indian players did not get visas. And outstation Pakistani players chose not to play. We cannot do anything about this. This is an international event and our players should have tried their best to participate in it,” said tournament director Rashid Malik when asked about the walkovers.
He admitted that so many walkovers had affected the tournament. “Initially 11 Indian players were playing this event. We helped them get visas but some could not get visas,” added Rashid.
It is to be noted here that Dilip Mohanty was the top seed for 35 singles category who did not get visa, while other Indian players who are not playing this event are Gurdarshan Singh and Avneesh Raghuvanshi in 45 plus singles; and Naresh Khatri and Kishore Choudhary in 55 plus singles.
The Indian players that withdrew their names from the event are Shashi Bhushan in 50 plus singles, and Sushil Suri and Ajay Talwar in 55 plus singles.