Tennis in Pakistan: An Honest Assessment
Pakistan has produced a world top-10 doubles player in Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. It has a functioning national federation. It has facilities in its major cities. And yet, tennis remains, by almost any measure, a marginal sport in a country where cricket consumes the oxygen in every room. Understanding why — and what is genuinely changing — requires an honest look at the state of the game in 2026.
The Infrastructure Reality
Pakistan has approximately 180 registered tennis courts across the country, according to Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) data. The vast majority are located in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, with a small number in Peshawar and Quetta. This compares with Indias 10,000+ courts, a disparity that reflects both population difference and the divergent historical investment the two nations made in racket sports.
Most of Pakistans courts are located at private clubs — Lahore Gymkhana, Islamabad Club, Karachi Gymkhana — where membership costs are prohibitive for middle and lower-income families. The practical consequence is that tennis in Pakistan has historically been a sport for the elite, which severely limits the talent pool from which national programmes can draw.
Public courts, where they exist at all, are typically in poor condition: cracked surfaces, no lighting for evening play, absent net systems, and minimal maintenance. The NUST sports complex in Islamabad and Punjab University in Lahore have courts that fall somewhere between public and institutional access — available to students but rarely to the broader community.
PTF Initiatives: What Is Actually Working
The Pakistan Tennis Federation has, to its credit, launched several structured programmes in the 2023–2026 period that show genuine promise.
The Junior Excellence Programme (JEP): Launched in 2023, the JEP identifies players aged 10–16 across Pakistans four major cities through school-based screening clinics. Identified talents receive subsidised coaching (three sessions per week) and equipment provision. In 2025, over 400 juniors participated, with the top 20 receiving full scholarships for coaching and tournament entry fees.
The JEPs most encouraging output has been inter-city competitions at the U-14 and U-16 level, which have revealed talent from outside the traditional club system — notably two players from Peshawar and one from Faisalabad whose backgrounds would previously have precluded access to the sport.
Schools Tennis Initiative: Partnered with 45 private and government schools in Lahore and Islamabad, this programme provides basic net equipment (portable nets, foam balls, mini-rackets) to introduce younger children aged 6–10 to modified tennis formats. While modest in scope, it represents an attempt to shift the access point down the socioeconomic ladder.
National Ranking System Overhaul: The PTFs revised national ranking system, introduced in 2025, uses a points-based calendar of 24 sanctioned domestic tournaments, providing a clearer pathway from junior to senior competition and better data on domestic player development.
Infrastructure Challenges
Despite positive programme developments, three structural challenges persist.
Coach quality and availability: Pakistan has approximately 60 certified tennis coaches, of whom only 12 hold ITF Level 2 or higher credentials. This coaching deficit — coaches who can technically develop players to ATP/WTA standard — is the single biggest bottleneck in Pakistans tennis development. Without quality coaching at the junior transition stage (ages 14–18), talented players plateau.
Tournament exposure: Pakistani juniors have extremely limited access to international junior tournaments. ITF Junior Circuit events in South and Southeast Asia require travel budgets that most families and clubs cannot fund. Indias junior circuit infrastructure — 30+ ITF-sanctioned events per year on home soil — gives Indian juniors far more match-hardening experience.
Governance and funding: PTFs budget from government allocation (via Pakistan Sports Board) covers basic administrative functions but is insufficient for infrastructure investment. Private sponsorship — the alternative revenue source — remains modest due to limited commercial television presence for tennis.
Grassroots Success Stories: Lahore and Islamabad
Two programmes deserve specific recognition. In Lahore, the Aisam Tennis Foundations club-based programme at Lawrence Gardens has enrolled 80 children from mixed economic backgrounds since its 2024 launch — the first serious attempt to democratise access to the sport in Pakistans second city.
In Islamabad, the Margalla Tennis Academy, a private initiative run by two former Davis Cup players, operates at genuinely competitive prices with ITF-qualified coaching. Their U-16 cohort includes three players who have competed internationally and, notably, a 15-year-old girl ranked in the top 5 of Pakistans national junior rankings.
The Gender Dimension
Womens tennis in Pakistan is severely underdeveloped even relative to mens — but 2026 represents a turning point. The PTF Womens Committee, established in 2025, has secured a separate budget line for womens development and launched a Womens National Championship with prize money for the first time in the federations history.
The symbolism matters: when Pakistani girls can see women competing for prizes in their own national championship, the sport becomes a plausible aspiration rather than an abstract possibility.
Conclusion: Building Beyond Crickets Shadow
Growing tennis in Pakistan requires attacking multiple constraints simultaneously — infrastructure access, coach quality, tournament pathways, and social legitimacy. None of these changes happen quickly. What 2026 offers is genuine evidence that foundation work is underway: the JEP pipeline, the Aisam Foundations democratisation efforts, and the womens development initiative collectively represent the most coordinated investment in Pakistani tennis in the sports history.
In 10 years, if Pakistan produces one ATP top-100 player and one WTA-ranked woman, the current generation of programme builders will deserve full credit. The shadow of cricket is long, but the court is finally being built.
