LAHORE-Haider Ali Rizwan and Bilal Asim reached the final of the Kamran Steel ATF 16&Under Asian Tennis Tour 2022 Leg-1 after winning their respective semifinals played here at Sports Board Punjab Tennis Academy Nishtar Park Sports Complex on Thursday.
In the first semifinal, Haider Ali Rizwan of LGS Paragon overwhelmed Sheheryar Anees by 6-4, 6-1. Haider faced tough resistance from his opponent in the first set but after leveling the score at 4-all, he settled down and won the next two points in a row to win it 6-4. He dominated the second set right from the word go and comfortably took it by 6-1 to book berth in the final. Rising star Bilal Asim was another player, who set the final clash against Haider, after crushing Hussnain Ali Rizwan by 6-0, 6-0. Bilal, student of coach Rashid Malik, expressed his hope that he is well prepared and try to beat Haider and clinch the Asian Ranking Tennis title.
In the U-16 position matches, Asad Zaman (Ali Embroidery Mills) had to struggle hard to edge out talented Sameer Zaman by 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 while Muhammad Salaar also faced tough resistance from M Ibraheem Ashraf before winning the crucial match by 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Nabeel Qayum did well against M Sohaan Noor and outpaced him by 6-1, 7-5 while Abdullah Pirzada outsmarted Taimoor Ansari by 6-2, 6-3.
In the boys U-16 doubles semifinals, Bilal Asim and Ahtesham Humayun made their presence felt by outlasting the pair of Sameer Zaman and Amir Mazari 6-1, 6-1. Bilal/Ahtesham were in sublime form and started well against their opponents, thus comfortably winning the first set 6-1 and the second with the same score of 6-1 to earn a place in the final. The second finalist pair was of Hussnain Ali Rizwan and Haider Ali Rizwan, who proved too hot for Ashraf and Nabeel Qayum and trounced them by a huge margin of 6-0, 6-0.
In the Kamran Steel Punjab Junior Tennis Championship 2022, Abdullah Pirzada and Taimoor Ansari qualified for the boys/girls U-14 semifinals. Abdullah Pirzada played well against Nabeel Qayum and thumped him by 6-2 while Taimoor Ansari had to struggle hard to brush aside Abdur Rehman (SICAS) by 7-5. In the boys/girls U-12 semifinals, Aalay Husnain beat Abdur Rehman 6-4 and SICAS’ brilliant student Hajra Suhail (AAA Associates) beat Bismel Zia 6-2. In the boys/girls U-10 quarterfinal, Hajra Suhail beat Aliyan 6-0 and Muaz Shahbaz beat Aahil Najoom 6-0.