Pak wheelchair tennis team leaves for Antalya

KARACHI: Pakistan’s wheelchair tennis team left on Tuesday to participate in the World Team Cup Qualification to be held in Antalya, Turkey, from March 17-21.

This is Pakistan’s first participation in its 73-year history in any international wheelchair tennis event.

“The team comprises M Irfan, Fida Hussain and London-based Asif Abbasi, ranked 435. This is a historic moment,” said Khalid Rehmani, the manager of the team, while talking to 'The News'.

He added that the players were selected through trials after an extended coaching camp in Karachi.

It is to be noted that teams from across Africa, Asia, Americas and Europe are participating in this qualification round.

After qualification, the winning teams will compete for spots in the World Team Cup event in Portugal from May 2-8.

The Qualification event, previously held as four individual regional qualification events prior to the pandemic, will take place as an all-in-one qualification event for the second year running.

The seeding for the qualification event will be based on the rankings as on March 14.