ISLAMABAD - Ahmed Chaudhry finally broke Pakistan's longest serving No 1 tennis player Aqeel Khan’s jinx after beating him in the NBP Subh-e-Nau National Tennis quarterfinals here at Senator Dilawar Abbas, PTF Complex on Thursday.
Aqeel Khan, who is dominating the country's tennis for more than a decade, lost to seventh seed Ahmed in a well-contested match. Ahmed displayed quality tennis and won the match 6-4, 6-3. Ahmed is a student of former national junior champion and level-III coach Kamran Khalil and former Davis Cup coach Fazle Subhan, while Imran Shoukat is also coaching at Islamabad Tennis Complex.
Third seed Shehzad Khan was also stunned by Imran Shaukat in another quarterfinal of the men's singles. Second seed M Abid faced stiff resistance from his opponent Usman Rafique in first set of third quarterfinal, however, he won the second set and match convincingly. Heera Ashiq was the fourth player who joined the semifinal lineup after beating Talha Zubair. Pair of Abid and Usman reached semifinal of men's doubles after beating Ahmed Ch and Faizan Khurram. Aqeel/Shehzad managed to lessen their pain of defeats in singles category as they reached final of men's doubles after beating Zain Nawab/Shahid Afridi.
There were interesting contests witnessed in boys' U-18 quarterfinals as second seed M Mudassar was beaten by fifth seed Arham Atique in straight sets. Seventh seed Talha Zubair shocked third seed Hasnain Manzoor while fourth seed M Muzammil beat Aman Atique. Barkatullah also joined the semifinal line up after beating Kashanulhaq. Rida Khalid, Iman Qureshi and Alina Aftab managed to reach semifinals of ladies singles.