ISLAMABAD - Twenty seven matches were played on the inaugural day of Syed Tajammul Abbas ITF Pakistan World Junior Ranking Tennis Championship 2019, which commenced here at Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex on Tuesday.
Top seed Huzaifa Abdul Rehman started his journey on a positive note by beating qualifier Luca Schurdevin of France in straight sets while all the seeded players, except third seed Saqib Hayat, moved to the next round by beating their respective opponents in the first round.
The best encounter of the day was played between Saqib Hayat and Nathan Jattavapornvanit (THA), which was won by Thai player in three sets. In the first set, Saqib built up the winning lead by breaking 3rd, 5th and 7th game of Nathan to take it 6-1. In the second set, both the players played excellent game with combination of forehand and cross-court short. Nathan was leading 5-3 by breaking 7th game of Saqib and held the 10th game to take the set 6-4. In the third set, Nathan started well and built up the winning lead by breaking 5th and 9th game of Saqib to win the set 6-3.
Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Salim Saifullah Khan visited the venue and witnessed the matches and encouraged the national and international players to perform and exhibit better skills and play healthy and competitive tennis.