ISLAMABAD - Top seed Bulgarian Ivan Penev defeated local favourite Huzaifa Abdul Rehman in straight sets in the final of the ITF Pakistan Junior Tennis Championship-2018-II, which was played here at Senator Dialwar Ababs PTF Complex on Saturday.
It was highly charged up first set, as Huzifa, who lost the last final against the same opponent, was looking highly determined to take revenge and grabbed 30 highly valuable ITF points. It was great start as Huzaifa matched fire with fire in the first three games and it was 3-3. But after that it was only one way traffic, as the top seed Penev was dictating terms. Massive crowd support was also not enough to push Huziafa, who looked down and out. Penev won next three games in a row to take the first set 6-3 in 25 minutes. Second set was a highly close affair as both players managed to hold onto their respective serves and it was 6-6. Huzaifa had chances to win the set to stay in the final but he missed easy chances, which allowed Penev to clinch the second set 7-6 (7) to land back-to-back titles.
Pakistan Tennis Federation president Salim Saifullah Khan was the chief guest on the occasion while Chairman HEC Tariq Boonari, and the ambassadors of Bulgaria, Egypt and Azerbaijan were also present on the occasion. Later chief guest distributed prizes among the players.