LAHORE, May 4: Top seed Aisamul Haq Qureshi annexed the National Open tennis title despite facing a resolute fight from No.2 seed Aqeel Khan in the four-set final at the Bagh-i-Jinnah courts on Monday.

Aisam, playing first time in any national level tournament, in seven years, lived upto his reputation and seeding to win 6-4, 6- 4, 3-6, 7-6, after a two and a half hour long engagement.

The last time Aisam played in the national championship was way back in 1997 winning the title by beating the then top seed Mohammad Khaliq. Aisam dominated the court with his blistering serves, powerful forehand, superb lob and drop shots which earned him many points.

Aqeel had a strong backhand which left Aisam stranded on many occasions. A large number of fans were delighted with the long rallies exchanged by the two top Davis Cuppers of the country.

Playing from the baseline, Aisam and Aqeel were tied at four-all in the first set. Here, Aisam broke Aqeel's serve to gain a vital 5-4 lead. Aisam was more aggressive in holding his own as he wrapped up the game after dropping only one point and went ahead 1-0. Aisam was now on the rampage. He quickly doubled the lead by winning the second set 6-2.

Aqeel, made some unforced errors indeed, and was erratic at crucial moments thus losing the set easily. Aisam broke Aqeel's service in the second and sixth games to win the set with utmost ease.

Although he was in trouble, Aqeel had come on court for the third set with a different idea, challenging Aisam in the third set. Aqeel played with great determination forcing Aisam to commit errors. Aqeel soon came out the winner breaking Aisam in the third to cut down the deficit 1-2.

In the fourth set which proved decisive, no player could break each other's serves which went into a tie-breaker. Here Aisam playing some cross court backhand smashes, dropped only two points to seal the fate of the match. Aisam's mother Nausheen Ihtesham, also on court in the ladies final, lost her battle to national champion Mariam Rahim.

Mariam staged a comeback before winning the title with the score 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. After being one-all, Mariam had taken a 3-0 lead in the third. Nausheen roared back to reduce the margin 5-3. But in the final game Mariam, suffered due to slight cramps on match point.

Taking three minutes for an injury break she came back on court to earn match-point which earned her the title. In the Junior Under-17 final, Ahmad Aslam thrashed Tanvir Munir 6-1, 6-3 to win the crown. Both players belong to the Punjab Coaching Centre.

However, the Under-13 final between Heera Ashiq and Waqas Malik was a thrilling one. Heera finally came out with flying colours with score of 6-7, 7-5, 7-5. The match lasted for one hour and 20 minutes.

In the first set, both players held on their serves to take the set into a tie-breaker. They fought for each point and werelocked at 5-5. At this point Waqas earned two winners to take a 1-0 lead. The gruelling fight continued in the second set as both were on even par at 5-all.

Here Heera broke Waqas's service and holding his own, levelled the scores 1-1. In the evenly contested third set, the score was again tied at 5-all. Heera repeated his earlier performance as he again broke Waqas's service and managing to keep his cool came out a 2-1 winner.

An Indian pair of R.I Singh and Rajwade won the Under-55 final, beating Naveed Najam and Col. Khalid 6-3, 7-5. Rashid Malik and Aqeel Khan and Asim Shafik and Shahzad Khan shared the men's doubles finals title which could not be completed due to darkness.

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