Philippines ask ITF to shift Davis Cup tie from Pak

Philippines Tennis Association has refused to send its team to Pak for the Asia Oceania Davis Cup tie on security grounds.

The Philippines Tennis Association has refused to send its team to Pakistan for the Asia Oceania Davis Cup tie in Lahore on security grounds and asked the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to shift it elsewhere.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation confirmed on Thursday that they have heard that the Philippines have written to the ITF asking them to shift their tie against Pakistan to a neutral venue or the Philippines in the aftermath of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3 in Lahore .

“We have got nothing in writing as yet about this from the ITF but we ourselves were planning to send a detailed security brief to the ITF for the tie,” Major Rasheed,PTF secretary said.

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The Asia Oceania zone Group II tie is scheduled to be held at Defence club,which Rasheed says is in a posh residential area and extremely secure.

“We will fight to keep the tie in Pakistan but obviously we can’t boycott the event if the ITF accepts the Philippines request. We can also be banned by the ITF for this,” Rasheed said.

Pakistan was also forced to play its Davis Cup tie against Oman in Oman after the ITF decided to shift the tie from Lahore to Muscat on the request of the Omanese team for security reasons.

Pakistan,led by their top player Aisam-ul-Haq,had beaten Oman 4-1 to advance to the next round.