Haroon Rahim (born 12 November 1949) is a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

former

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. The former Pakistan and Asian No. 1. He was active from 1965 to 1978 and won 12 singles tour titles. Rahim was the youngest

player ever to play for

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

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, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

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 Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP ...

and

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...

in 1970–71 and was 1971 NCAA doubles champion with Jeff Borowiak.

Career

Rahim was from the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

city of

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, 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. He played and won his first tournament in the easter of 1965 at the Huddersfield Open in England. 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 several Grand Slams, in both singles and doubles. He won 8 tour titles on the ILTF World Circuit including the Ojai Championships the Northumberland Championships and Cranleigh Open all in 1969. In 1970 he won the U.S. National Amateur Grass Court Championships and the March of Dimes Open against

. In 1971 he won the Palm Springs International. Rahim also won two ATP titles, the first at the Arkansas International in Little Rock against former Wimbledon runner up

Alex Metreveli Alexander Irakliyevich Metreveli ( ka, ალექსანდრე მეტრეველი, tr, ; ; born 2 November 1944) is a retired Soviet tennis player of Georgian background. Personal info Metreveli is an honorary citizen of Aust ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and then the second at National Tennis Foundation Open in 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 lost a final to Spanish US Open winner and French Open finalist

Manuel Orantes Manuel Orantes Corral (; born 6 February 1949) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He won 36 career singles titles, including the 1975 US Open, defeating defending champion Jimmy Connors in the final. Orantes reached a career-high ...

. He 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. 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 Lawn Tennis Championships. As both players never lost their serve, each set went to a tie break with Haroon winning the match by just one point. He played his last tour event at the Surrey Hard Court Championships on clay in 1978. 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

* * *
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 Expatriate tennis players in the United States Living people 20th-century Pakistani sportsmen