Aisam-ul-Haq: a hero for Pakistani Nation

By: Anam Sajid (09U0191)

‘Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi a hero for Pakistani fans’, ‘Another Pride of Performance likely for Aisam’, ‘Aisam-ul-Haq a star of excellence’, ‘Aisam selected as Champion of Peace’, ‘Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi overshadows cricketers, lifts nation’, ‘Afridi asks players to seek inspiration from Aisam’. These are the headlines of various national and international newspapers and the common word in all of these is AISAM.

AISAM-UL-HAQ QURESHI is the best tennis player that Pakistan has ever produced. Playing in the biggest tournaments of the world, with the champions and history makers of tennis, Aisam surely has come a long way. Aisam started playing tennis at the age of 14 under the guidance of his mother, Nausheen Ihtisham, a former 10-time national champion.  Since that day, there was no looking back.

With dedication and hard work, Aisam soon became Pakistan’s Under-16 champion. Two years later, he became Pakistan’s Under-18 champion.  At that point, Aisam stepped up and aimed to play internationally. He got selected by ITF and soon became Asia’s top tennis player. Fortunately, the success did not get to his head but made him extra determined to strive for more and more.

In an interview with Dawn Newspaper on Tuesday, 13^th April, 2010 Aisam showed his concern towards young rising tennis players who are indecisive to pursue tennis as a career. His exact words were, “Their families need to understand that tennis can be a professional career choice too”. Aisam believes that “Pakistan tennis has improved by leaps and bounds in the last five years but it has yet to get the kind of attention that cricket gets.”

In year 2002, Aisam had to face the controversy that had taken much hype in Pakistan as he had paired with Amir Hadad, an Israeli for his doubles match at Wimbledon. During an interview, by Daily News on Tuesday, 12^th July, 2002, Aisam was asked that will he be pairing with Hadad again, Aisam replied: "Why not? I don't like to interfere religion or politics into sports. You can't do this, you know. You have to keep sport as a sport and just enjoy it". After Wimbledon, Qureshi and Hadad played the second round of US Open where they were acknowledged, for playing together, with the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award. Aisam happened to be the first Pakistani to receive this award.

For the period of 1998 and 2004 he has won 33 Singles and Doubles titles and ended up runner up on 20 occasions in international tournaments. In 2001 he was the first Pakistani to qualify for the Wimbledon Grand Slam Tennis Championship after a gap of 34 years.

2010 was a year of calamity for Pakistan. Being ruined by floods, ambushed by terrorism and humiliated over the cricket scandal, Aisam brought a ray of optimism for the people of Pakistan. For the very first time in his entire life, Aisam qualified in the finals of mixed doubles at the US Open, partnered with Kveta Peschke. He also qualified in the final of men’s doubles at US Open, with Rohan Bopanna. This diverted the attention of the citizens of Pakistan from the dreadful happenings to new prospects. People who loved tennis or not, all prayed for Aisam. Though, Aisam did not win the finals, but he surely did give his opponents, quite a run for the title.

In his first interview after his men’s double and mixed doubles finals of the US Open he said that since the start of the current year, his world ranking had become a lot better and was getting improved further. He said that his next target was Air and Masters Tournament in which eight top players and teams of the world take part.

Aisam created history for Pakistan by qualifying in the finals of the US Open. At the award ceremony of the final of men’s doubles match of the US Open, Aisam took the mic and addressed 15,000 people at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was accommodating the biggest crowd to watch a Grand Slam Doubles Finale. Aisam started with wishing ‘Eid Mubarak’ to Pakistanis and Muslims all over. "I want to say something on behalf of all Pakistanis," he said. "It is the wrong perception that Pakistan is a terrorist country. We are friendly, loving, caring people and we want peace as much as you guys want it. May God love us all". Millions of people were watching this on their television all over the world. Aisam continued, "There are extremists in every religion, but just because of them you cannot judge the whole country as a terrorist nation. I just wanted to get this message across as a Pakistani." Together, with his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna they have created the Indo-Pak Express. In reference to Aisam’s message, his opponent, Bob said. "Just to give that message to everyone was very heartfelt. What they are doing is a lot more important than winning the U.S. Open."
Aisam-ul-Haq is surely a hero of Pakistani nation. The support of the whole nation is with him.