Haroon Rahim (born 12 November 1949) is a Pakistani former

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. The former Pakistan and Asian No. 1, Rahim was the youngest

player ever to play for

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in the Davis Cup at 15 years of age. He was also the highest ranking Pakistani tennis player (a career-high singles ranking of World No. 34 in October 1977). He led the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

team to victory with

Jeff Borowiak Jeff Borowiak (born September 25, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States, who won five singles and three doubles titles during his professional career, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 20 in A ...

and Jimmy Connors in 1970–71 and was 1971 NCAA doubles champion with Jeff Borowiak. Rahim was from the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

city of

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

, from a large family of avid tennis players. His father, Mir Abdur Rahim, was a civil servant who encouraged his children, sons and daughters, to play tennis. Four of Haroon's elder siblings; M. Nasim, M. Naeem, Zulficar and Shahnaz were also national tennis champions. His father loved tennis so much that he said he wanted to die on the tennis court. In 1968, he died of a heart attack while playing doubles with friends at the picturesque Mayo Gardens, Lahore. Haroon Rahim was only the second Pakistani after Khawaja Saeed Hai to make it to Wimbledon's main draw. After reaching the Wimbledon Junior Boys singles quarterfinals twice (1965 and 1967) he went on to play in many Grand Slams, in both singles and doubles. Rahim won two ATP titles, the first at Little Rock against former Wimbledon runner up

Alex Metreveli Alexander Irakliyevich Metreveli ( ka, ალექსანდრე მეტრეველი, tr, ; russian: Александр Ираклиевич Метревели ; born 2 November 1944) is a retired Soviet tennis player of Georgian b ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and then the second at Cleveland against

Colin Dibley Colin Dibley (born 19 September 1944) is a former tennis player from Australia. Dibley once held the title for the fastest serve in the world at 148 m.p.h. During his professional career, he also won four singles and seventeen doubles titles. ...

, both in 1976. He also lost a final to Spanish US Open winner and French Open finalist

Manuel Orantes Manuel Orantes Corral (; born 6 February 1949) is a former tennis player from Spain who was active in the 1970s and 1980s. He won the US Open men's singles title in 1975, beating defending champion Jimmy Connors in the final. Orantes reached ...

. He also won three doubles titles, at Oslo in 1974, North Conway in 1975, and Little Rock in 1978. In men's doubles at Grand Slam events he made it to the quarterfinals of the US Open, the third round of Wimbledon, and the second round of the French Open. Haroon Rahim is the winner of one of the closest matches ever played when he beat Tom Gorman 6–7^(3–5), 7–6^(5–1), 7–6^(5–4) at the Pennsylvania Grass Championships. As both players never lost their serve, each set went to a tie break with Haroon winning the match by just one point. Last known to be in the U.S., Haroon retired from tennis at age 29, severed contact with his family, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Grand Slams performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

ATP career finals

Singles (2 titles, 3 runners-up)

Doubles (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

References

External links

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Haroon Rahim: The greatest tennis player Pakistan has ever produced
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahim, Haroon 1949 births Pakistani male tennis players Tennis players from Lahore UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Living people