PESHAWAR
A three members 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 wherein out of three players two are hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The players selected to represent Pakistan include Rashid Ali Buchani (Sindh), Muhammad Shayan Afridi and Muhammad Junaid Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The players are really pumped up for the forthcoming 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.
Pakistan’s three-member national team has been announced for the South Asian Junior Tennis Championship to be held in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The federation announced a three-member team after the last day’s trials, in which Peshawar’s Shayan Afridi, Junaid Khan and Sindh’s Rashid Ali Buchani were selected.
Talking to the media in Peshawar, Shayan Afridi said that he will return with a winner trophy and do his hard efforts to win the battle in his U12 category. He is working hard for the event. After a long struggle, he has reached the national team. He said that he has been playing tennis for the past four years and has won many competitions, including Pakistan Junior Open, PSB Cup, Bank of Punjab Cup and many more. Muhammad Junaid said that he has also been playing tennis for the past four years and his victories are quite high. “I cannot express the joy of joining the national team for the first time.
He said he got the honor 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 got runners-up trophy of the Service Tyres and reached the semi-finals in the U14 category of the same.
Muhammad Junaid 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, the Secretary of the KP Tennis Association, when contacted said that it is a very good result two junior players have given in the trials and selected for the National team to play tennis for the first time at international level.
He said lot of our players have been selected to represent Pakistan including 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 and represented Senior and Junior Davis Cup teams. He said we have well qualified coaches who worked hard with the players selected for various teams at the national level including Shaharyah Khan, Shah Hussain, Zakir Ullah, and Nouman Khan. All of them are well qualified but the Pakistan Tennis Federation could not give them a chance to go with the teams as coaches. “They deserved to be named with the team because of the hard efforts but their efforts were yet to be recognized,” he added.
He said four other players including Muhammad Faizan Afridi, Ryan Umar Khalil, Salar Khan, and Shaharyar Khan are those who will soon be reached to the international teams.
