LAHORE   -  Abdur Rehman (AAA Associates) stunned rising star No 2 seed Zohaib Afzal Malik in U-12 semifinal while taking a sweet revenge, Zohaib Malik (SA Gardens) outplayed Abdur Rehman in U-14 semifinal in the Sapphire Punjab Junior Tennis Championship 2022 here at the Punjab Tennis Academy Bagh-e-Jinnah on Thursday.

In the U-12 semifinals, emerging player Abdur Rehman (AAA Associates) was up against Zohaib Afzal Malik. Abdur Rehman played tremendous tennis right from the word go as he smashed some superb and down the line shots, which gave him upper hand on his opponent and helped him win the crucial encounter by 8-3. The second semifinal of U-12 category was won by Umer Jawad, who overwhelmed spirited Ismail Aftab by 8-1.

Zohaib Afzal Malik then took sweet revenge in the U-14 semifinals against same U-12 opponent – Abdur Rehman – by outpacing him with a good margin of 8-2. Zohaib showed his class against young Abdur Rehman soon after the beginning of the important match and put him under pressure to comfortably win the semifinal conceding just two games. In the second U-14 semifinal, Umer Jawad faced some resistance from Ismail Aftab before winning the match by 8-4.

Young Hajra Sohail (AAA Associates) played superb tennis during the boys/girls U-10 final against Mustafa Uzair and dominated the title clash in great style, winning the final by 8-2. In the U-18 semifinals, Hassan Ali routed Amir Mazari 8-4 while Asad Zaman outclassed Zaeem Ghafoor 8-1.

All the finals of the event will be played today (Friday) at 3:00 pm followed by a colorful concluding ceremony that will be graced by PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik, players, their families and tennis lovers here at the Punjab Tennis Academy, Bagh-e-Jinnah.