PESHAWAR, May 08 (APP):A three-member Pakistan Junior Tennis team has been announced for the forthcoming South Asian Tennis Championship to be played in Kathmandu, Nepal from May 20-29, 2024.
The players selected include Rashid Ali Buchani (Sindh), Muhammad Shayan Afridi and Muhammad Junaid Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
The players are really pumped up for the event. Surprisingly, since 2011 each of the national team either U12, U14, U16 or Davis Cup national squads, none of the coaches of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been named alongside the team to recognize their efforts and hard work with the players who were selected in the national side.
Talking to the media, Shayan Afridi said that he will try his level best to win the trophy in U12 category. He was working hard for the event. After a long struggle, he had been included in the national team.
He said that he has been playing tennis for the last four years and had won many competitions, including Pakistan Junior Open, PSB Cup, Bank of Punjab Cup and many more.
Muhammad Junaid said that he had also been playing tennis for the last four years and his victories are quite high. “I could not express the joy of joining the national team for the first time.
He said he had an honour of winning runners-up trophies in Sheikho Steel in U12 and U14 categories besides winning Milat Tractor’s both U12 and U14 categories trophies.
Muhammad Junaid said that he won runners-up trophy of the Service Tyres and reached the semi-finals in the U14 category of the same.
He said that he reached the quarter-finals of the Sheharyar Malik Open Tennis and won the winner trophy in the U12 category besides winning the trophy of the Haji Umar Khatab Memorial Tennis Open Championship U14 category.
Omar Ayaz Khalil, Secretary of the KP Tennis Association, when contacted, said that it was a good news that two junior players took trials and were selected for the National team to play tennis for the first time at international level.
He said other players who have been selected to represent Pakistan include Shoaib Khan, Barkat Ullah, Yousaf Khalil, Saqib Umar, Aqib Umar, Kashan Umar, Hamza Roman, Hamid Israr, Uzair Khan with two of the upcoming selected team players Junaid Khan and Shayan also got the honor of becoming international players and represented Senior and Junior Davis Cup teams.
Khalil said, “We have well qualified coaches who worked hard with the players and they had been selected for various teams at the national level including Shaharyah Khan, Shah Hussain, Zakir Ullah, and Nouman Khan. All of them are well talented but Pakistan Tennis Federation did not give them a chance to go with the teams as coaches. They deserved to be named with the team because of their hard efforts, yet to be recognized.”
He said four other players Muhammad Faizan Afridi, Ryan Umar Khalil, Salar Khan and Shaharyar Khan will soon join
the teams.
