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Aisam ul Haq
 Game on! Aisam-ul-Haq
Pakistan's new sports hero
Mag4you.com gets up close and personal with the country's newest fresh faced icon
Let's face it, there's nothing like a young, strapping sportsman to get the female pheromones in a tizzy. The sheer athletic energy combined with the hero-like patriotic urge to bring victory to one's country make for ideal crush fodder. It's all the better if the said sportsman is good looking. He easily becomes an icon not just for gaggles of lovelorn teenage girls but also for little boys endeavoring to follow in his footsteps, sports aficionados and even for people who are least interested in sports, for the simple reason that he wins laurels for the country.
Pakistan has had its share of sports icons. We have a film industry that has dwindled into near oblivion, a music industry valiantly trying to cope with recession and over history, our TV channels have sporadically been subjected to heavy censorship. But even the most conservative faction can't find anything wrong with sportsmen who even - sometimes- manage to beat India. Imran Khan ruled the roost back in the '80's. Now, we have Aisam ul Haq Qureshi.
Aisam ul Haq is the reason why Pakistan is currently raving about tennis. He is the first Pakistani to have reached the finals of two different matches in the US Open 2010. Though he didn't win either match, he is the first ever Pakistani - Muslim, even - to have succeeded so far in tennis. In his speech following the mixed doubles match against the USA's Bryan brothers, he earnestly declared, "We Pakistanis want peace as much as you do." The speech won him applause in the US - in Pakistan, it managed to treble his popularity. His boyish good looks help, of course. Aisam is thirty but he doesn't look it. Perhaps it's innate, perhaps it's the fact that he is doing something he loves, perhaps it's just his easygoing personality that hasn't let him age. A self-professed lover of dance and music, Aisam has a smile that crinkles up his entire face and a modest, self-deprecating manner. A world class tennis player without any airs and graces. Who can resist a celeb like that? And he had the mettle to speak on behalf of his country, in New York, no less. Eye candy for the women, national hero for the men; Pakistan has found a new hero to worship.
And Aisam has certainly been at the receiving end of some intensive hero-worship ever since his return from the USA. Not that he minds it. A week following the U.S. Open, back in his home-city Lahore, Aisam looks exuberant. He is being hounded for television and magazine interviews on a daily basis, his Facebook page is over flooded with 'Friends' requests and he gets a large number of fan letters daily including some, he says, "weird letters". What kind of weird? I ask him to which he diplomatically mumbles, "Some fans get over-emotional. You just need to know how to handle them."
He certainly seems confident about being able to 'handle' crazed fans. He has a similar knack for dealing with the media. Ask him a question and he smilingly has an answer ready. The trickier the question, the more unfazed he gets. And his answers are always very diplomatic, very sincerely spoken and hardly ever controversial. I ask him whether he is innately media-savvy or does he have someone to guide him? "No, I don't have anybody to guide me. I just say what I am thinking and luckily for me, it always works out. I am never intentionally diplomatic! I have been competing in tennis matches since my teens," he tells me. "I am accustomed to all this."
 He may have been playing since his teens but it is only now that he has received countrywide fame. Looking at his tennis career so far, he has time and again won medals, received awards and made new records. It is surprising, really, that he hasn't truly been in the spotlight before. "It's because Pakistan is essentially a cricket-loving nation," he opines. "And after cricket, the focus has always been on squash or hockey - never on tennis. There are no proper academies for training in tennis and only a few good coaches.
I hope that I manage to change that now. I have waited for this for a long time. I am glad that with my success at the U.S. Open, people over here are finally taking notice of tennis."
While his hopes for Pakistani tennis are very altruistic, isn't he also personally enjoying the fame? "Of course I am," he agrees. "I feel very lucky and thankful to God. I am not even being allowed to pay the bills of the restaurants I visit!" That must be fun, I comment, to which he quips, "It is. My brother and sister are going to eat out with me everywhere!"
His brother and sister are apparently a pivotal part of his life. Even in his speech at the U.S. Open, he remembered to wish his sister a happy birthday. He may be a top ranking tennis player, traveling the world most of the time, but at home, Aisam is essentially very family-oriented. "I am very close to my family. My mother was the one who introduce me to tennis. Once I started competing, my father took over managing my career. To this date, he pays my travel fares and organizes my interview schedules. I may be representing Pakistan but the government has hardly ever paid for my expenses, except for the Davis Cup. The expenditure has always been footed by my parents."
He seems irked by the government's lack of support, and rightfully so. The governor of Punjab recently awarded him Rs 500,000 but even post his U.S. Open success, the travel bills for his upcoming matches are being paid by his family. Taking part in ad campaigns has helped him cover expenses, to some extent. "Not only are ads a financial help but they also popularize tennis," he says. "People see a tennis player being associated with a well-liked brand and they realize that maybe this is a sport they could introduce their children to."
Right now, though, tennis is hardly a popular sport in Pakistan. We may like watching the game occasionally but cricket still rules supreme over our minds, television screens and streets. Perhaps this is the reason why the government hasn't yet set aside money for tennis while there is an allotted budget for cricketers, regardless of their match-fixing antics. I ask his opinion on the recent match-fixing scandal to which he replies, "The investigations are still going on and I hope that it turns out to be false. But if it is true, then it is a disgrace. When a sportsman plays internationally, it is his responsibility to uphold the image of his country. Such incidents only end up deteriorating Pakistan's international image even more. Match-fixing exists in every sport but you need to be scrupulous enough to stay away from it." Incidentally, the penalty for match-fixing in tennis is a life-ban on the players that are caught out. Hasn't he ever been surreptitiously approached to take part in a fixed up match? "Luckily, no," he says. "I have a reputation of being very straight forward. Perhaps that's the reason why nobody has ever approached me."
Aisam's squeaky clean reputation on the tennis circuits has his counterparts often quoting him to be a "nice guy". The world's no. 1 player, Roger Federer, happily accepts that Aisam has beaten him twice in different matches. Rohan Bopanna, Aisam's Indian co-player in the men's mixed doubles, is all-smiles as Aisam makes his "Pakistan wants peace" speech. There is none of the hackneyed Pakistani-Indian rivalry between the two players. Rather, they are known as the 'Indo-Pak' express, promoting friendship between their countries with their easy rapport.
I ask him if he's been criticized yet for partnering with an Indian to which he replies, "Not yet, thankfully." I remind him of a time, in 2002, when he was banned in Pakistan because he played alongside a Jew in Wimbledon. "Yes, we tend to raise issues like that in Pakistan," he says resignedly. "I am glad nobody has raised such concerns over my partnership with Rohan."
Moving on to less sordid topics, I ask him about his life outside of the tennis ground. What does he do when he is at home? "I just fall into my usual routine - meet up with friends, watch movies, listen to music."
Music, apparently, also forms a part of his tennis-playing regime. Some time back, when he was on a winning streak, he used to listen to Atif Aslam's 'Aadat' before every match. "That was just a silly superstition that I believed in for a while," he laughs. "I am not particularly superstitious but every now and then, I do start following a routine that I feel is helping me be more focused. For instance, if I've won a particularly difficult match wearing a specific T-shirt, I might wear that shirt again in my next match."
Does he still get nervous before a match? "Of course I do," he replies. "When I started out, I wanted a family member to always be there in the audience. I still want them there when I am playing for the Davis Cup. There's a lot of pressure during the Davis Cup matches since I am officially playing for Pakistan and am being financed by the government."
While his family members are often amongst the spectators, there is a marked absence of a lady love in Aisam's life. Aisam's reputation even off the tennis court is spotless. There's never been talk of a girlfriend on the horizon or of impending wedding bells. Doesn't that make life boring? "I just don't have time right now" he explains. "If I married right now, it wouldn't be fair on my wife. Tennis is my main priority at the moment and I'd end up neglecting her."
Sadly for Aisam's innumerable female fans, this is true. At this point in time, Aisam's at a career high. He's traveling to different parts of the world almost every week and practicing daily for five to six hours. A tennis racket would probably be a better acquisition right now as opposed to a wife! Even most of my talk with him has taken place while he is driving. As our interview wraps up and I leave his home, his mother tells me, "He doesn't even have time to talk to us these days." Doesn't he get tired? "No," she says. "He's waited for this his whole life."
 When I leave, Aisam is signing autographs for a crowd of children that have turned up at his home. He answers their questions patiently, shaking hands, getting photographs taken. Despite the throngs of admirers constantly surrounding him, Aisam hasn't let success go to his head. Even as we part, he tells me, "I am where I am because of my parents' efforts and God." No mention of the long, tiring practices that he himself has put in.
Aisam ul Haq Qureshi deserves every bit of the adulation that he is now getting. To be honest, if he had belonged to any other country, he'd probably have been famous much earlier. But years of playing tennis all over the world has finally worked out for Aisam. In a country where cricket has always reigned, Aisam's prowess on the tennis court has finally ricocheted him into becoming, undeniably, Pakistan's new sports hero.
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