ISLAMABAD: Seventh seed Mohammad Mudassir shocked second seed Shahzad Khan while eighth seed Ahmed Chaudhry also recorded big upset by beating third seed Yasir Khan in the quarter-finals of the Subh-e-Nau National Championship at the PTF Complex here on Thursday.

The promising Mudassir played excellent game against experienced Shahzad Khan and outclassed him in straight sets.

After facing 6-2 defeat in the first set, the experienced player showed some experience in the second set, but that was not enough to stop the advances of Mudassir towards the semi-final, who played superb tennis and outclassed his strong opponent. He won the second set 7-5.

Ahmed recorded upset by beating Yasir 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets.

Throughout the game Ahmed played aggressive game and kept Yasir under pressure.

Earlier, Aqeel Khan thrashed Arham Atique in straight sets to make it to the semi-finals while Mohammad Abid had to work hard to overcome resistance of Heera Ashiq.

Pair of Shahzad Khan and Yasir Khan however managed to win the men’s doubles quarter-final against Jibran-ul-Haq and Hameed-ul-Haq.

Siblings Mohammad Mudassir and Mohammad Muzammil played exceptionally well to defeat Rashid Khan and Wakeel Khan in another quarter-final of men’s doubles.

Pairs of Usman Rafique / M. Abid and Aqeel Khan /Ahmed Chaudhry also won their matches to make it to the semi-finals.

Sara Mahboob and Sara Mansoor brushed aside their opponents in ladies singles quarter-finals without any resistance from their young opponents Pakeeza and Iqra respectively.

Mehak Khokhar and Shahida Farooq also qualified for the semi-finals after they were awarded walkovers.

In the U-18 quarter-finals, Saqib Umar had to toil hard to overcome resistance of Ilham Khan in the quarter-final as Ilham won the first set but could not maintain his winning streak.

Aman Atiq, Mohamad Muzammil and Aqib Umer also joined the semi-final line-up.

Hamza Bin Rehan, Waleed Anwar, Sami Zeb and Aqib Umar reached boys’ U-14 semi-finals after beating their respective opponents.

Semi-finals of all categories will be played on Friday while the finals will be played on Saturday.

Results:

Men’s singles (quarter-finals):

Aqeel Khan bt Arham Atique 6-3, 6-0; Mohammad Abid bt Heera Ashiq 7-6(9), 6-2; Ahmed Chaudhry bt Yasir Khan 6-3, 6-3; M. Mudassir bt  Shahzad Khan 6-2, 7-5

Boys U-18 (quarter-finals):

M. Muzammil bt Ahmed Ibrahim 6-2, 6-1; Aqib Umar bt Izhar Iftikhar 7-5, 6-2; Saqib Umer bt Ilham Khan 4-6, 6-3, 6-0; Aman Atique bt Zain Rohail 6-0, 6-1.

Boys’ U-14 (quarter-finals):

Hamza bin Rehan bt Ubaidullah 4-1, 4-0; Waleed Anwar bt Nalain Abbas 4-0, 4-1; Sami Zeb bt Kashan Umar 4-2, 5-4 (4); Aqib Umar bt M. Abdullah 5-4 (5), 5-3.

Men’s doubles (quarter-finals):

Yasir Khan/ Shahzad Khan bt Jibran-ul-Haq/Hameedul Haq 6-3, 6-1; M. Muzammil/M. Mudassir bt Rashid Khan/Wakeel Khan 7-6(5), 6-2; Usman Rafique/M. Abid bt Ikramullah/Abbas Khan 6-1, 6-2; Aqeel Khan/ Ahmed Ch bt Shahid Afridi/Shahzad PAF 6-3, 7-6.

Ladies singles (quarter-finals):

Sara Mansoor bt Iqra Nisar 6-0, 6-0; Sara Mahboob bt Pakeeza Nisar 6-0, 6-0.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2015