LAHORE   -   Top seeds moved into the next round of the Rafum Punjab Junior Tennis Championship 2019, which began here at Punjab Tennis Academy, Bagh-e-Jinnah on Friday.

PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz) graced the occasion as chief guest and inaugurated the event, where a large number of junior players from across the province were present. Malik thanked the Rafum Group CEO Zahid Hussain for his all-out support for the promotion of tennis and hoped that this year too, the PLTA will conduct a record number of junior tennis events.

A good number of enthralling matches were witnessed on the opening day and all the seeded players advanced to the next rounds. In U-10 pre-quarterfinals, Hamza Ali Rizwan thrashed Harris Bajwa 4-0, 4-0, M Shakib outclassed Talha Tarar 4-0, 4-0, Ismail Aftab overpowered Momin Kashif 4-0, 4-0, Omer Jawad thumped Nael Imran 4-0, 4-1, Zohaib Afzal Malik defeated Ibrahim Zaman Khan 4-2, 4-3 and Ameer Mazari overwhelmed Awais Arshad 4-0, 4-0.

In U-12 pre-quarterfinals, Abdullah Pirzada proved too hot for Amin Haroon and won the encounter by 4-0, 4-0 while Ismail Aftab routed Sarim Rasul 4-0, 4-1, Alina Suleiman toppled Mustafa Haroon 4-0, 5-3, Mohammad Shaees beat Harris Bajwa 5-3, 4-2, Awais Arshad thumped Raja Mustafa 4-2, 4-0 and Omer Jawad outsmarted Afaf Suleman 4-1, 4-2.

In U-16 quarterfinals, Nalain Abbas thrashed Khizer Mehboob 6-0, 6-0, Hassan Ali beat Abdul Hanan Khan 6-3, 4-6, 10-7, Faizan Fayyaz beat Ahtesham Arif 6-4, 7-5 and Zain Ch beat Zahra Suleman 6-1, 6-3.

The quarterfinals and semifinals of different categories will take place today (Saturday) here at the PLTA courts while the finals of all the categories will be played on Sunday.