LAHORE-Top seed Aqeel Khan and Muzamil Murtaza reached the men’s singles final while Ushna Suhail and Sara Mansoor squeezed into the ladies singles final in the 3rd Nayza All Pakistan Open Tennis Championship being played here at the PLTA courts.
Aqeel Khan will take on Muzamil Murtaza in the men’ singles final at 2:00 pm while ladies singles final will be played between Sara Mansoor and Ushna Suhail at 10:00 am. Rafum Group COE Zahid Hussain will grace the occasion as chief guest while PLTA chairman Iftikhar Ahmad Rao, secretary Rashid Malik and tennis enthusiasts will also be present on the occasion. The concluding ceremony will be held at 4:00 pm.
In the men’s singles semifinals, Pakistan’s longest serving number one tennis player Aqeel Khan took it little time to outclass Mudassar Murtaza in straight sets. Aqeel conceded just two points to clinch the first set 6-2 while he was more severe in the second set, where he just conceded one point to win the set 6-1, thus booked berth in the final against Muzamil Murtaza, who stunned second seed Mohammad Abid by 6-2, 7-6(1). Muzamil dominated the match right from the word go, as he played powerful shots to rout Abid 6-2 in the first set. Abid bounced back in second set and made it 6-6. But once again, Muzamil showed his class and won the tie break 7-6(1) to breeze into the final.
The ladies singles semifinals proved to be one-sided affairs as in the first semifinal, one of the promising Pakistani female tennis player Sara Mansoor thrashed young Noor Malik in straight sets. Sara won the first set 6-1 and then never allowed Noor to score even a single point, winning the second set 6-0. Pakistan’s world ranking player Ushna Suhail of ZTBL outclassed Esha Jawad also in straight sets. Ushna won the first game 6-0 and grabbed the second 6-1 to set final clash against Sara Mansoor.
In men’s doubles finals, Muzamil Murtaza/Mudassar Murtaza outpaced Mohammad Abid/Waqas Malik by 6-2, 6-3 to clinch the title. Earlier in the semifinals, Muzamil/Mudassar defeated Malik Abdul Rehman/Asad Ullah 6-4, 6-3 while Abid/Waqas overwhelmed Omer Babar/Ahmad Babar 6-3, 6-4.
In seniors doubles 45 plus final, Rashid Malik/Maj Adnan beat Israr Gul/Jehanzeb Khan 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 to annex the title while the seniors doubles 60 plus title was won by Waqar Nisar/M Babar, who defeated Rai Zahid Zafar/Dr Naveed by 4-6,6-3, 12-10.
In U-18 semifinals, M Shoaib beat Ahmad Asjad 6-3, 6-4 and Abdullah Adnan beat Ahmad Kamil 6-2, 6-1 to qualify for the finals. In U-14 semifinals, Hamid Israr beat Hassan Ali 6-2, 7-6(3) and Farman Shakeel outlasted Abdul Hanan Khan 6-0, 6-2. In U-10 semifinals, Abubakar Talha thrashed Rai Waleed 8-0 and Hamza Ali Rizwan routed Ameer Mazari 8-4.