ISLAMABAD - Third seed M Abid survived a close scare against veteran Davis Cupper Shahzad Khan before moving to the semi-finals of the First Eastern Testing Services PTF Ranking Tennis Championship 2013 here at the Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex on Thursday.
In the most thrilling and entertaining quarterfinal, Shahzad gave tough time to third seed Abid and both the players kept on fighting till three hours. Abid though lost the first 6-7(8) yet he bounced back in the second at the eleventh hour and not only won the second set 7-6(5) but also played exceptionally well in the third and won it 6-4, thus winning the match 6-7(8), 7-6(5), 6-4.
In the other quarterfinals, top seed Aqeel Khan, second seed Yasir Khan and fourth seed Usman Ejaz reached the semifinals. In the first quarterfinal, Aqeel thrashed Ahmed Chaudhry 6-0, 6-1 and Yasir won the match against Faizan Khurram 6-2, 6-0.  Yasir will face Usman in the first semifinal while Aqeel will take on Abid in the second semifinal.
M Mudassar, Hasnain Manzoor, M Muzammil and Arham Atiq advanced to the semifinals of the U-18 category by registering victories against their respective opponents. Muzammil eliminated Nofil Kaleem in a well-contested three set match 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Arham Atiq struggled hard to beat unseeded Zaid Mujahid 6-3, 7-5. Hasnain Manzoor eliminated Saad Zafar 6-1, 7-6(2) while top seed Mudassar beat Hamza Bin Asif in straight sets. He will now face Hasnain Manzoor in the first semi-final while Arham Atiq will play against Muzammil in the second semifinal today (Friday) at 9:30am.