ISLAMABAD  - Aqeel Khan, Yasir Khan, Ahmed Chaudhry and M Abid moved to the semifinals of the 28th Federal Cup National Ranking Tennis Championships 2013 here at Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex on Monday.
Top seed Aqeel Khan eliminated his younger brother Jalil Khan in a well-contested match 6-4, 6-4. Ahmed Ch made the upset in the men’s singles when he beat Pakistan No 4 Usman Ijaz in a one-sided affair 6-1, 6-2.
It is Ahmed’s back-to-back victory against Usman as he had also beaten Usman in the recently-concluded championship. Ahmed will face Aqeel Khan in the first semifinal today (Tuesday) at 8:30am. Yasir Khan won his match against upcoming Usman Rafique of Lahore in another straight set win 6-2, 6-2. In the last quarterfinal, M Abid beat Shahzad Khan. Abid will now face Yasir Khan in second semifinal.
In the boy’s U-18 singles event M. Mudassar, Mian Bilal, Syed Nofil Kaleem and Arham Atique qualified for the semifinals.
Top seed M Mudassar won his match against Hamza Bin Asif in a three-set match which lasted one hour 30 minutes. The best encounter of the day was played between Mian Bilal and M Muzammil of Jehanian as both the players displayed quality tennis and finally Main Bilal won the match in three sets 7-6, 1-6 and 6-2 and will face top seed M Mudassar in the semifinal. Syed Nofil Kaleem beat Talha Bin Asif in straight sets 7-5 6-3 and will face Arham Atique who won his encounter against Kashanul Haq 6-2, 6-0.
In senior 60+ doubles, Justice Ijaz Ch/Laeeq Pirzada caused the major upset by beating top seeds Sohail Ittehad/Major Pervaiz 6-1, 6-1. Earlier Mahboob Khan/Justice Ejaz Yousaf beat Malik Khalid/Salim Gul 6/2, 7/5.