‘Peace and Sport Image of the Year’ (Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna)

[Frankenstein]

Off-court honour for IndoPak Express
Dawn.com Sports Desk
Saturday, 16 Oct, 2010

The two South Asian players who paired up to form a formidable force in men’s doubles tennis have been rewarded for their efforts by the Peace and Sport Organization.

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna were announced as the winners of ‘Peace and Sport Image of the Year’ award by the World Peace and Sport Forum on Friday.

The award is given to the best image of fraternity through sport or a symbolic moment showing the ability of sport to advance peace in the world and to encourage reconciliation among peoples.

“The Peace and Sport Image of the Year Award will be given to India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi – two tennis players who managed to bring the political authorities in their respective countries closer, through their own history of personal friendship and commitment,” a statement issued by Peace and Sport said.

The duo’s ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’ campaign made a breakthrough achievement this year, when they managed to bring together the Pakistani and Indian ambassadors to the United Nations.

Hardeep Singh Puri (India) and Abdullah Hussain Haroon (Pakistan) watched from the stands as the IndoPak Express contested in the men’s doubles semi-finals and final of the US Open 2010 in New York last month.

The winning image, taken by Jay Mandal for the ATP World Tour, shows the two players chatting with the two ambassadors after their semi-final win at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Based on worldwide open voting competition and jury’s decision the image was declared the winner, having received 60 per cent of the votes cast globally.

Rohan (Hindu) and Aisam (Muslim) have played in a doubles team for three years and are building their careers together, despite historical hostilities that divide India and Pakistan. Motivated by their friendship, they decided to actively campaign for peace between their two nations.

During several events on the ATP World Tour 2010, they wore warm-up gear displaying the slogan “Stop War, Start Tennis”, thus affirming their belief that friendship between India and Pakistan is possible.

“The message of peace given by Rohan and Aisam is a unique source of inspiration for young people in their respective countries, but its significance does not stop there. They use their charisma and their sporting success to raise awareness amongst the entire international community, their fellow athletes and political authorities in their countries, as we saw at the US Open. I hope that their appeal will lead the way to new rapprochement initiatives,” Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport said.

“Sport’s greatest victory is not measured in terms of medals. It is measured by its ability to positively change people’s lives and bring them hope. And that’s exactly what Rohan and Aisam succeed in doing. They demonstrate what champions can achieve when they use their celebrity for a good cause.”

The players’ next humanistic goal is to organize a friendly tennis match at the Wagah border, the only checkpoint that exists between India and Pakistan. This symbolic event, supported by Peace and Sport, will incarnate the wish of Indian and Pakistani young people to live in peace.

Other contestants for this year’s award were, “Young Pentathletes bridge the gap between the USA and Cuba,” “Nelson Mandela, hero of the anti-apartheid struggle and symbol of the 2010 World Cup,” and “Iran and the USA forget their differences on a basketball pitch.”

The award will be presented to the duo by Prince Albert II of Monaco at a grand gala ceremony on December 2.

 

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Aisam, Bopanna nominated for World Fair Play award​

Pakistan Tennis star Aisamul-Haq Qureshi and Indian player Rohan Bopanna have been nominated for the Willi Daume World Fair Play trophy.
The World Fair Play Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in Olympic City Lausanne’s Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel on January 27, 2011.
The committee that arranges the awards aims to “support and promote fairness in and equal opportunity and to formally pay tribute to those men and women, children and adolescents and sports-related organisations throughout the world who have exhibited fair play on the sporting field or throughout their careers, or who have conducted an activity promoting fair play.”
The organisation’s website cites Qureshi and Bopanna’s message of peace as the reason for their nomination.
India-Pakistan border match gains support
Earlier on Thursday, Bopanna and Qureshi urged their governments to allow a tennis match across their heavily fortified border, as support grows for the symbolic event.
Bopanna and Qureshi, the “Indo-Pak Express” who hope their doubles partnership can help their bitterly divided countries, said the initiative was now backed by the world tennis body and an international peace group.
The pair are pushing for a match using a net strung across the famed Wagah border crossing, as part of their “Stop War Start Tennis” campaign.
Qureshi said the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had thrown its support behind the scheme, along with Peace and Sport, a non-governmental organisation run by Prince Albert of Monaco.
“A lot of good things have been achieved, the ITF is now supporting this, Peace and Sport is also supporting this,” Qureshi said. “The letters have gone to both the prime minister and president of both countries. “It is a political issue and there are a lot of security concerns, so we are just hoping that the governments will give us the green light so we can play that match on the border.”
Qureshi and Bopanna, who were finalists at last year’s US Open, are confident of a positive response from their respective governments.
“Things are going in the right direction,” Qureshi said. “Last year, at the US Open, both the UN Ambassadors for Pakistan and India came and watched our matches, which was a huge thing and they are supporting the cause as well.
“Things are going in the right direction, we just have to keep playing our matches and get more and more publicity on the bigger occasions. “Hopefully it will happen this year.”
Australian Open round one win
Qureshi and Bopanna won 6-3, 6-0 against Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa of Brazil during their round one men’s doubles match on the fourth day of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Thursday.
Aisam will also be playing in the mixed doubles, partnering with the Czech Republic’s Kveta Peschke.

 

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Aisam-Bopanna lead the way for ‘peace teams’ at Aussie Open​

MELBOURNE: The unique ability of sport, and in particular tennis, to conquer political divides was on full display at the Australian Open Thursday as war-riven nations were united on court.

Less than 24 hours after a security alert over feared clashes between ethnic Serb and Croatian fans, Serbia’s Dusan Vemic and Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic teamed up for doubles.

On the court next door, another bitter rivalry was put aside, with India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, the peace-seeking “Indo-Pak Express”, also in action.

The giant Karlovic and experienced Vemic, who has had other Serbian partners including Novak Djokovic, have been an on-off team since 2009 and even look like an odd couple, with the 2.08 metre (6.8 feet) Karlovic towering over the 1.9 metre Vemic.

Their backgrounds make the cliched title even more appropriate, given that their two nations were involved in bloody conflict in the 1990s, after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

The Australian Open has seen repeated skirmishes between Australian-based Serbian and Croatian fans, prompting world number three Djokovic to appeal for calm ahead of his match against Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the second round.

Meanwhile Bopanna and Qureshi have been playing partners since 2007, using their matches as a platform to promote better relations between India and Pakistan, who have had three wars since the end of colonial rule.

Ironically, Bopanna’s partner at the mixed teams Hopman Cup in 2008 was Indian player Sania Mirza, who caused a huge stir when she married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik last year. The couple now live in Dubai.

Bopanna and Qureshi are acutely aware of the political sensitivities of their partnership, which is why they launched a sportswear line featuring the slogan “Stop War Start Tennis” at Wimbledon last year.

The pair are also ambassadors for Peace and Sport, an organisation run by Prince Albert of Monaco.

“It is a very good thing, that is the beauty of sports — culture, religion or politics don’t come into it,” Qureshi said.

“That is the message we are trying to spread not only to Pakistanis and Indians, but all over the world.

“There is no reason if we can get along well on and off the court, that other Pakistanis and Indians can’t.”

At last year’s US Open, Bopanna and Qureshi, who reached the final, were watched by the United Nations ambassadors for both their countries.

The pair, who have been friends for more than a decade, are also pushing for a historic tennis match on a court split by the border of the two countries.

“The idea is Rohan playing on the Pakistani side and I am playing on the Indian side,” Qureshi said.

“A lot of good things have been achieved, the ITF (International Tennis Federation) is supporting this, Peace and Sport is also supporting this.

“The letters have gone to both the prime minister and president of both countries.

“It is a political issue and there are a lot of security concerns, so we are just hoping that the governments will give us the green light so we can play that match on the border.”

For the record, the “Indo-Pak Express” rolled through in straight sets, but Karlovic and Vemic bowed out in three.

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

i want lee- hesh and indo-pak express to fight it out in australian open final.

on topic i think indo pak express can teach both governments to work together.