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NEW YORK -- The Prime Minister of Pakistan called him in the morning, and then word came that they are setting up theater-sized screens all around the city of Lahore, and maybe throughout Pakistan, to watch him play tennis.
Then Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi went out and played the mixed doubles finals at the U.S. Open Thursday.
In the end, Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber beat Qureshi and Kveta Peschke 6-4, 6-4.
But it was still another big day for Qureshi.
"I never, ever will forget this moment for the rest of my life," he said.
Qureshi is half of the Indo-Pak Express doubles team, with partner Rohan Bopanna of India (both pictured above, Bopanna on left, Qureshi on right). They are friends and partners from often warring, always threatening neighbor countries.
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So they're sending a message, albeit one that started as an accident. They partnered a few years ago for tennis reasons, not political or social ones.
"What (he) and Bopanna are doing for world peace is incredible," Bryan said to the crowd at Ashe Stadium over the public address system in his victory speech. "These guys are great guys. Everyone in the locker room likes them."
He then said that he and his brother Mike would make a donation to flood relief in Pakistan. He did not specify an amount.
"Unbelievable gesture by them," Qureshi said. "More than 40 million people homeless. I really, really appreciate the gesture."
Qureshi said on Wednesday that he'd like to make a statement into the microphone in a victory speech. He didn't do it on Thursday in defeat, he said, because he didn't want to steal the spotlight from Bryan and Huber.
The Bryan brothers will play Bopanna-Qureshi in the men's doubles final on Friday.
This is just such a different story from what you usually get in tennis, where the normal non-tennis talk is about the women players' dresses. It's hard to say how much two tennis players can really accomplish in a peace mission, but it truly seems that these guys are making something happen.
On Wednesday, the Pakistani and Indian ambassadors to the U.N. sat together to watch their semifinal match. Both vowed to return Friday.
"I've never addressed in front of so many people in my life," Qureshi said over the p.a. "It's been hard times for Pakistan, especially in the last two months (with floods and terrorism), so to be able to help send some positive news back each day has been fantastic."
So many things are happening for Qureshi, who's 30, that he threw it in almost as an afterthought that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had called. Qureshi said he received a series of four or five calls Thursday morning from various secretaries and assistants before the leader took the line.
"He was just thanking me for what I'm doing," Qureshi said. "He said what I'm doing is good."
Bopanna and Qureshi would like to play a match at the Wagah border, where troops from each country put on uniforms for a changing-of-the-guard type of ceremony each night. Their idea is to have a court that's halfway in India and halfway in Pakistan.
Qureshi said he told the Prime Minister he would like to meet in person; he plans to suggest the border match then.
First, he has a U.S. Open final to play, a growing sentimental favorite against the Bryan brothers, the U.S. doubles dynasty.
Not to pressure Qureshi, but he would be the first Pakistani to win a major title, and a country will be watching on big screens while two ambassadors watch courtside.
E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com; Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch
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