ISLAMABAD    -     Young Sami Zeb Khan stunned Uzbekistan’s Shamsutdinov Oybekmirzo in the ITF Pakistan Junior World Ranking Tennis Championship 2019 second leg first round match here at Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Complex on Monday.

The second leg of the ITF event commenced on Monday, in which total 12 matches were decided on the inaugural day and all the seeded players made it to the second round with contrasting victories. The champion of first leg Huzaifa Abdul Rehman was given bye in the first round.

Sami was underdog against experienced Uzbek lad Shamsutdinov Oybekmirzo, while odds were in favour of the Uzbek. But Sami had other ideas in store as he started the proceedings with a number of aces and his down the line shots, passing shots and returns were up to the mark, which were frustrating his opponent. Both the players managed to hold onto their respective serves till the fifth game, when Sami finally changed his gears and broke the fifth game of Oybekmirzo to win the first set 6-3 in 23 minutes.

The second set was fully dominated by the local lad, who was in sublime form as he was hitting winners and kept Oybekmirzo on the run to all sides of the court. Sami managed to break the second and fourth games of his opponent to win the set 6-2, thus registered a convincing victory and moved into the second round.

In other matches of the day, Chinese Taipei’s Lai Yu-Shun thrashed Pakistan’s Osama Khan 6-1, 6-1; Kim Dong Hwan (KOR) thumped another promising local lad Zalan Khan 6-1, 6-3; Soahib Khan (PAK) routed Subhan Bin Salik (PAK) 6-2, 6-1; Kang Gunuk (KOR) trounced Hamid Israr Gul (PAK) 6-0, 6-1; Giri Aryan (NEP) toppled beat Abdullah Khan (PAK) 6-0, 6-2; Muhammad Nouman Aftab (PAK) outclassed Muhammad Huzaifa Khan (PAK) 6-0, 6-1; Saqib Hayat (PAK) beat Ibrahim Khan (PAK) 6-3, 6-4; Ahmed Nael Qureshi (PAK) beat Yahya Luni (PAK) 6-3, 6-0; Ahmed Kamil (PAK) beat Muhammad Haidn (PAK) 6-1, 6-0; Lu Chen-Yu (TPE) beat Hyyat Jawad (PAK) 6-0, 6-0; Tootoonchi Moghadam (IRI) beat Muhammad Talha Khan 6-3, 6-3.

While in the boy’s doubles first round matches, Sami Zeb Khan had a wonderful day with the racket, as after winning the singles, he went onto win the doubles match as well. Partnering with Iran’s Erkin Tootoonchi Moghadam, Sami beat Pakistani duo of M Huzaifa Khan and M Talha Khan.

It proved to be a one-sided affair as Huzaifa was no match to the power hitting Sami and Erkin, who took the first set 6-1 and second also by 6-1 to register victory. In other match, Ahmed Kamil (PAK)/Subhan Bin Salik (PAK) beat Aryan Giri (NEP)/Hamid Israr Gul (PAK) 6-1, 6-2.

While doubles draw of boys and girls also took place in the presence of players at referee office. Defending champions Shoaib Khan partnering with Huzaifa Abdul Rehman are second seeds, whereas Daniel Webb (GBR) and Knese Luca Emanuel (GER) are top seeds in the doubles event. In the girls doubles, Khanloo Mahta (IRI) and Safi Meshkatolzahra (IRI) are top seeds and Choi Ji-Woo (KOR)/Jang Soo Ha (KOR) are second seeds.