KARACHI, Jan 7: Riding on the crest of a wave, highly talented Nasir Mushtaq celebrated the New Year imposing straight victory over Nomi Qamar in the Sindh ranking tennis championship to land fourth men’s singles title of his career at Southend Club on Wednesday.
Nasir, a junior international and fourth seed, swept past second seed Nomi, a member of the Davis cup team in 2007, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in some 100 plus minutes.
The two have stormed in the final after registering wins over Khan brothers —
Jalil and Yasir — in three sets. Nasir ended pretensions of top seed Jalil 5-7,
7-6 (4), 6-2 while Nomi disposed off third seed Yasir 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the two pre-finals on Tuesday.
“It’s one of the happiest moments of my career,” an elated Nasir told Dawn after the triumph.
“Though the victory over Jalil gave me a lot of confidence still I was not expecting a clean sweep,” he added.
Sindh No 1 Eman Malik also came out of the shadow of Seher Khawaja, a former national hard court champion, when she finally overcame her 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 to claim the ladies singles crown.
The juniors U-17 title went to promising Syed Zuhair Raza who accounted for Umer Shahid 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
Nameer Shamsi annexed the boys U-15 title overcoming contemporary Adil Kohari 6-2, 6-4. Both have represented the country in the world juniors tennis championship 14 and under in Malaysia last year.
Talha Zubair Surmawala excelled in the boys U-13 category when he beat Saud Shoaib 8-5 pro set to bag the title.
Picking up from where he had left, Nasir, who has learnt the basics of the game from Nomi’s father Qamaruddin, finally applied them on his master’s son to post maiden win over him.
Playing mostly from the baseline, Nasir delighted the holiday crowd with his strong serves and winners. Nomi had a faulty backhand as compared to forehand.
Nasir received a purse of Rs25,000 - Rs10,000 by sponsors and Rs5,000 apiece announced on the occasion by three individuals while Nomi earned Rs5,000.
The ladies singles and juniors U-17 singles winners were awarded Rs2,000 apiece with runners up getting Rs1,000 each. The U-15 winner and runner up got Rs1,000 and Rs500 respectively.
Sri Lankan Consul General V. S. Sidath Kumar was prominent among others who witnessed the final. His son Kanishkan also participated in boys U-9 event.
Final results:
Men’s singles: Nasir Mushtaq bt Nomi Qamar 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Ladies singles: Eman Malik bt Seher Khawaja 6-1,
4-6, 6-2.
Juniors U-17 singles: Syed Zuhair Raza bt Umer Shahid 6-3, 7-5.
Boys U-15 singles: Nameer Shamsi bt Adil Kohari 6-2, 6-4.
Boys U-13 singles: Talha Zubair Surmawala bt Saud Shoaib 8-5.
Men’s doubles: Robin Das and Vinod Das bt Mohammad Abdul Saeed and Mohammed Naseem 6-3, 6-3.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.