The dream run at Wimbledon may have finally come to an end for the Indo-Pak pair of Prakash Amritraj and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi at the hands of the experienced duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles on Monday, but the overall atmosphere at the All England club, where fans — both Indian and Pakistani — cheered for them in unison will remain etched in their memory forever.
At a time when sporting relations have soured drastically between the two countries — post the November 26 terror attacks in Mumbai — both players insist that they do not find it weird being on the same side of the net. And according to them, none of the fans cared either.
“You could never figure out who was Indian and who was Pakistani in the crowd,” Qureshi told The Indian Express a day after they had been knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals. “It was incredible.”
Both the players had their families supporting them from the stands during their run at Wimbledon. “After the second match, we both interacted with each other’s families. That was really great,” Amritraj said.
Qureshi believes that doing well at the top level is the only way to promote tennis in a country like Pakistan. He also said that the pair had grown as a team over the past three weeks, but added that to compete at such a high level, a lot of experience was required. Though he did suffer from a back injury in the fourth set, Qureshi admits that the damage — as far as the match was concerned — had already been done. “The third set tie break was crucial and had it gone our way, the result might have been different,” he said.
‘Indian and Pakistani fans were cheering as one, it was incredible’](Indian and Pakistani fans were cheering as one,it was incredible’ News Archive News - The Indian Express)
Amritraj, meanwhile, insisted that he was quite satisfied with taking the second set off the veterans and giving the Indian-Bahamian duo a hard time.
The ATP event at Newport is next on the agenda for Amritraj, who has received a wild card for the singles, but the Indian admits that he is looking forward to teaming up with Qureshi again