From vegetarian meals to further safety, Pakistan taking further care of India’s budding tennis gamers

From arranging vegetarian meals to reserving observe courts with out asking and beefed up safety, Pakistan is “going out of their way” to make the eight-member Indian tennis contingent really feel “special” in Islamabad, which is taking part in host to the Asian U-12 ITF regional qualifying occasion.

A couple of Indian junior tennis gamers have competed throughout the border in a person capability in several ITF Grade occasions however it’s the first time {that a} junior nationwide staff has travelled to Pakistan for a multi-nation event.The Indian Davis Cup staff has not travelled to the neighbouring nation since 1964 and no senior participant has competed on Pakistan soil for the reason that friendship collection between the 2 nations in November 2007 in Lahore.Obviously, Pakistan is glad to host Indian gamers even when they’re simply 12-year-old girls and boys.Aarav Chawla, Ojas Mehlawat and Rudra Batham characteristic within the boys’ staff whereas the ladies’ staff has Maaya Revathi, Harithashree Venkatesh and Janhavi Kajla.Incidentally, former nationwide champion Ashutosh Singh, who was a part of the 2007 friendship collection, is with the boys’ staff as a coach.Ashutosh says having the India flag on their official jerseys had began to draw consideration even earlier than they landed in Pakistan.“At the Doha airport, a few people noticed the tricolour on our jerseys and they got interested in our group. They belonged to Pakistan and were happy to know that we were headed to Islamabad. If you are an Indian player, they want to talk to you,” Ashutosh informed PTI from Islamabad.“Before we reached the immigration desk, the Pakistan Tennis Federation had all the clearances in place. It was clear, they were happy to have us as guests. We also had an escort vehicle to the hotel.”“There were no security concerns. Even the parents of the kids were pretty confident. All the top players of Pakistan like Aqeel Khan are our good friends. They always keep tennis away from politics.”Namita Bal, who’s the coach of the ladies’ staff, was overwhelmed by the particular therapy they’re receiving.“They are taking care of our tiniest of things. Janhavi is the lone vegetarian in our group but they are arranging vegetarian food for her every day. We are supposed to book our courts and arrange for water but they are taking care of everything,” chuckled Namita.“Not only this, we arrived a day earlier (Saturday) than the scheduled time and were supposed to pay for our hotel but we were told that we don’t need to pay. We are overwhelmed by the warmth, love and respect we are receiving in Pakistan,” added Namita.“They are making sure we don’t feel as if we are enemies. They are calling us 10 times a day to ask if we need anything. They are going out of their way to make us feel comfortable.”The Indian girls and boys are favourites to win their respective occasions on the ITF Asia 12 & Under Team Competition, which is a South Asia Regional Qualifying occasion. The high two groups will make it to the following spherical, which can be held in Kazakhstan in November.The Indian boys’ staff blanked Nepal 3-0 and the ladies’ staff beat Pakistan 2-1 to begin their marketing campaign on an excellent word on Monday.Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Salim Saifullah Khan informed PTI that they’d “love to host the senior Indian teams as well.”“India has some really strong players and playing with them will benefit our players. It will be a good experience for our boys and girls to play against these Indian kids.“Our agencies, the special police force are alert and taking extra care of the Indian squad. All we want us is that they inform us, if they are going anywhere. They must inform us,” he mentioned.“The junior Indian players used to come here for ITF Grade 4-5 events but now they don’t come. We want that Indian players come here and Pakistan players to compete in India,” mentioned Khan, who final got here to India in 2005 when her mom underwent eye surgical procedure in Mumbai.India’s primary U12 participant Aarav’s father Jitender Chawla, who works within the company world, mentioned he had no apprehensions about sending his son to Pakistan.“People say numerous issues however when the gamers are there as nationwide friends I don’t really feel there must be any downside. If one thing has to occur can occur wherever. Aarav was fairly excited to go there.Aarav trains with Aditya Sachdeva, who heads the coaching program at Round glass sport in Chandigarh.