KARACHI: Pakistan number one Aqeel Khan stamped his superiority as the best player in Pakistan when he outplayed talented opponent Talha Zubair Surmawala in the men’s singles final of the Ebrahim Merchant Ranking Tennis Championship on the tennis courts of Karachi Club here on Sunday.
Aqeel won 6-2, 6-1 and picked a cash prize of Rs 30,000.
In the Under-17 final, a tough fight was witnessed between Nouman Aftab and Hassan Farooq with the latter emerging a 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 winner.
However, Nouman had some consolation when he overcame a stiff challenge from Zubair Raja in the Under-15 final before winning 6-3, 7-6, 7-4.
In the 35-plus doubles final, Asad Ali Bhagat and Kalem Ghanchi got the better of Raza Ali Mirza and Tahir Ifthikar 6-3, 7-5.
Open boys event of soft tennis was introduced for the first time time in this tournament which was won by Ahmed Ehtisham.
Besides, with the support of Para Sports Pakistan, a boys open event was also contested which was won by Special Games gold medalist Arif Qayyum who beat Manzar 10-5.
Abbas Merchant was the chief guest on the final day where a huge number of tennis fans turned up to watch the engrossing finals.
Besides the fans, many current and former tennis players and officials including Khawaja Saeed Hai, Yughanda and his family from the Sri Lankan Consulate, Kamran Sarhadi, Khalid Rehmani, Asad Ali Bhagat, Yousuf Sulemean, Erum Bukhari, Nomi Qamar, Farha Riaz, Nadia Razzak were also present.
Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2016
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