ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: Two girls and a boy from Pakistan have won their respective singles matches in opening round of the Sheikh Zayed ITF World Ranking Junior tennis championship at Abu Dhabi (UAE).
According to a report sent by Pakistan contingent's manager-cum-coach Mehboob Khan on Tuesday, 15-year-old Sarah Mahboob beat fancied Isabella Aumuller of Austria 6-4, 6-2.
Sarah is now scheduled to play against No.8 seed Klaudia Mansfeldova of Slovakia.
In another girls singles match, Natasha Afridi outclassed Violetta Nosareva of Russia 6-0, 6-0.
Natasha will now face top-seed Oman’s Fatima Al-Nabhani.
However, Zinelabidine Jouni of Tunisia defeated Tanvir Ashiq of Pakistan 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a boys' singles match.
Pakistan junior No.2 player Yasir Khan made amends for Tanvir Ashiq's loss by beating Dominique Chaftari of Lebanon 6-2, 6-0.
In pre-quarter-finals, Yasir will play against No.4 seed Mohammed Alissawi of Jordan.
Tanvir Ashiq and Yasir Khan teamed up to beat a strong pair of Hassan Ibrahim (Egypt) and Alem Tleshov (Kazakhastan) 6-2, 6-2 in a boys’ doubles match.
The tournament is being played at deco-turf surface of the Abu Dhabi Armed Force Club hotel. Deco-turf is used in the US Open.
“I am proud of my team's performance and will do everything to assure more success in future,” Mehboob Khan said.—APP