LAHORE - The 2nd Tennis Lovers Punjab Open Tennis Championship 2021 was formally inaugurated here at the PLTA Courts on Tuesday.
PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz), who is also tournament organizer, inaugurated the event at the colorful opening ceremony, which was also attended by players, their families and tennis lovers. Speaking on the occasion, Malik said: “This tournament was stopped due to wave of Covid-19 and now it is being organized, where top players of the province have been taking part.
“The PLTA has planned a lot of tennis activity throughout the year and though many of the tournaments couldn’t take place due to Covid pandemic, yet we have plan to conduct maximum number of tournaments this year in order to provide maximum opportunities to our youngsters to exhibit their prowess and excel at higher level,” he added.
A good number of were played on the opening day in the different age categories and the top seeds advanced to the next round. In the men’s singles first round, M Abid beat Zaeem Ghafoor 8-9, Heera Ashiq beat Malik Abbas Watoo 8-0, Faizan Fayyaz beat Inam Arif 8-2, Imran Bhatti beat Ifham Rana 8-4, Shaeel Durab beat Aakif Hussain 8-6, Shayan Tariq beat Hassan Kamran 8-3, Sikandar Hayat beat Faizan Shahid 8-0, Bilal Farooq beat Ahtesham Arif 9-7 and Fayyaz Khan beat Jalal Gillani 8-1.
In the U-18 first round, Muhammad Suhaan beat Shahmir Dilshad 8-2, Shaeel Durab beat Faizan Shahid 8-4, Zaeem Ghafoor beat Aized Khalil 8-2, Asad Zaman beat Muneeb Majeed 8-0, Abdul Hanan Khan beat Ghazi Ahmad 8-6, Ahtesham Arif beat Haroon Arshad 8-3.
In the U-14 first round, Abdur Rehman Pirzada beat Ramzan 8-1, Nabeel Ali Qayum beat Labika Durab 8-5, Muhammad Suhaan beat Talha Tarar 8-2, Amir Mazari beat Zohaib Eesa 8-0, Inam Bari beat Eesa Bilal 8-5 and Ahtesham Humayun beat Abdullah Pirzada 8-4. In the U-12 first round, Amir Mazari beat Ali Ejaz 8-0, Aalay Hussain beat Inam Bari 8-2 and Nabeel Ali Qayum beat Ali Usman 8-0.