LAHORE - Abubakar Talha of Wapda stunned high-flying Haniya Minhas 4-2, 4-0 in the Rafum Punjab Junior Tennis Championship 2021 Under-12 semifinals here at the Punjab Tennis Academy, Bagh-e-Jinnah on Friday.
Both Abubakar and Haniya started the semifinal in a great style and made it 2-all but after that, Abubakar started playing superb tennis with some powerful shots to put her opponent under pressure and took the first set 4-2. Abubakar continued to dominate in the second set and didn’t allow Haniya to score even a single game, thus won the set 4-0 to make his way into the final, where he will take on fifth seed Hamza Ali Rizwan, who though faced tough resistance from Zohaib Afzal Malik, yet won the semifinal by 4-2, 4-2.
Hassan Ali and Shaeel Durab booked berth in the boys U-16 final. In the first semifinal, Hassan Ali had to struggle hard to beat spirited Bilal Asim with a margin of 1-6, 6-3, 12-10 while Shaeel Durab also faced tough resistance from Ahtesham Humayun before winning the second semifinal with a score of 6-3, 6-4. In the girls U-16 semifinals, Haniya Minhas took little time to beat Labika Durab by 6-0, 6-2 while Amna Ali Qayyum made a good work to rout promising Ashtafila Arif 6-1, 6-4.
Ahtesham Humayun and Ismail Aftab played tremendous tennis to seal final spot in the U-14 age category. Ahtesham Humayun outclassed Amna Ali Qayyum by 4-1, 4-0 in the first semifinal while Shehryar Anees thrashed Ismail Aftab 4-0, 4-1 in the second semifinal. The finals of the championship will be played today (Saturday) here at PLTA Courts, where Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) President Maj Gen (r) Akram Sahi will be chief guest while Rafum Group CEO Zahid Hussain will be guest of honour. Other notables, who will grace the occasion, will be PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz), players and their families and tennis enthusiasts.