Pakistan’s future tennis hope Samir Iftikhar is facing hard ship to avail four-year scholarship offered by the University of New Mexico due to lack of funds of US$ 10,000 needed for the first year at the University.
He has appealed to the Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shabaz Sharif to help him with the funds so he can avail the opportunity to obtain education and necessary international tennis exposure which is vital to come to top world levels.
Samir is the second junior player from Pakistan since 1998 after his cousin Aisamul Haq who won four back to back ITF Junior world ranking titles for Pakistan in 2010. His talent has been recognised by the ITF which noticed his record rise in junior world ranking from 1300th to 250th in six months and awarded him prestigious ITF GSDF grant to play the ITF Junior World Ranking Tournaments in May 2010.
The Asian Tennis Federation also honored him in December 2010 and he was one of the eight under 20 players chosen from Asia for their Elite (HPEC) High Performance Evaluation where Samir had Pakistan’s presence felt strongly by becoming “Fittest Under20 Asian Player” award after physical endurance tests conducted by world class physical trainer.
The four year scholarship is worth over 150000 USD Year.