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Aisam’s Olympics chance diminishes Back To Main

The News

KARACHI: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Friday announced the replacement of Spain’s Rafael Nadal in Olympics singles and doubles events, which diminished further the remote chances of Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq getting an Olympics berth.

In men’s doubles, due to Rafael Nadal’s injury, the team of Marcel Granollers/Rafael Nadal (ESP) were replaced by Marcel Granollers/Marc Lopez (ESP), the ITF stated.

The 2012 Olympic Tennis Event will be held at the All England Club, Wimbledon, from July 28 until August 5.

There had been a slight hope as Nick Imison of ITF Communications had told ‘The News’ that “Aisam and Aqeel are still on an alternate list in case of any withdrawals.”

But it seems that this is not going to happen as only a few days are left in the commencement of the games.

Aisam recently said in an interview with BBC that the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) had not pursued his case efficiently.

But PTF’s president Kaleem Imam told this scribe that he himself called the President of Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) Anil Khanna, who is also a member of ITF’s executive committee, to lobby for Aisam’s wild card entry.

Kaleem said he also requested another member of the ITF executive committee, a Chinese woman, to support Aisam’s wild card entry during the ITF’s meeting.

Another sad aspect of the story is the passive role of Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) as it did not try to help PTF in this regard. It was busy establishing that the Supreme Court’s verdict against holding one seat of a sports body for more than two terms did not affect it.

At that time, POA President Syed Arif Hasan told ‘The News’ that they did not have any role in this regard and they were not informed if PTF had applied for the wild card or not. “I don’t know if the federation has applied for it. And we even can’t help them as this is between PTF and International Tennis Federation (ITF),” he added.