ISLAMABAD:Pakistan’s longest serving No 1 tennis player Aqeel Khan added another feather to his already decorated cap after defeating M Abid to clinch the Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan Memorial Asian Tennis Tour Championship trophy here at Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Complex on Thursday .
Although it was not a cake walk for Aqeel, as Abid gave him real fight before going down in three sets final, yet one thing is crystal clear that age factor is fast catching undisputed tennis king Aqeel, as now his reflexes and movement in the court clearly indicates that time is ripe when anyone is going to dethrone the maestro sooner rather than later.
It was Abid, who took 2-1 lead in the first set, breaking down Aqeel’s third game, but Khan leveled the score at 2-2 by breaking 4th game of Abid. The score was equal at 5-5 as both the players held their respective services, but it was Abid, who took the upper hand, as first he broke down 11th serve of Aqeel and then held onto his 12th serve to grab the first set 7-5 in 50 minutes.
Both the players started the second set in great style as the score was 2-2, but Aqeel then broke 5th game of Abid and held on to his serve to take 4-2 lead, and after that Aqeel didn’t look back and took the set 6-3 to level the final at 1-1. Khan showed his supremacy in the final set and built up 3-1 lead by breaking 3rd game of Abid. The veteran kept the same pressure and won the third and final set 6-3 and annexed the fourth Asian Tour title held in Pakistan. Aqeel was awarded cash prize of $900 and M Abid pocketed $600. Aqeel also earned valuable 48 points from these four ATT tournaments.
Sara Mansoor, Mahin Aftab, Mehek Khokhar, Ushna Babar, Esha Jawad, Ushna Suhail, Bakhtawar Haider and Sarah Mahboob entered the quarterfinals by winning their respective matches in straight sets.
In ladies singles pre-quarterfinals, Sara Mansoor got walk over against Arooj; Mahin Aftab thrashed Hania Navaid 6-1, 6-0; Meheq Khokhar routed Shimza Tahir 6-1, 6-2; Kuhunsha Babar crushed Shiza Sajid 6-0, 6-0; Esha Jawad outclassed Sara Banoo 6-0, 6-0; Bakhtawar Haider thumped Eshal Khan 6-1, 6-2 and Sarah Mahboob outpaced Yasha Atiq 6-0, 6-0.
In the boys’ U-18 Pre quarterfinals, Muzammil Murtaza beat Sahibzada M Ali 6-2, 6-1; Saqib Umer beat Farhan Ullah 7-5,7-6 (5); Ahmed Asjad beat Asad ullah 7-6 (2), 6-4; M Shoaib beat M Abdullah 6-0, 6-0; Barkat Ullah beat Huzaifa Abdul Rehman 7-5, 6-3; Aman Atiq beat Ilham Khan 6-0, 6-0; Yousaf Khan beat Ibrahim Ahmed 6-1, 6-0 and Haris Irfan ul Haq beat Shehryar Khan 6-2, 6-0.
In the boys’ U-14 quarterfinals, M Shoaib beat Nalain Abbas 4-1, 4-2; Amin Shafi beat Aqib Umer 4-2, 4-1, Subhan Bin Salik beat Sami Zeb 4-0, 5-4 (6) and Hamza Bin Rehan beat M Abdullah 4-1, 4-1. In the boys’ U-10 quarterfinals, Hamid Israr beat M Moiz Gul 4-0,4-1; M Talha Khan beat M Asim 4-0, 4-1 and Hamza Roman beat Zainab Ali Raja 4-1,4-0.
