ISLAMABAD: Brilliant Ushna Suhail and promising Muzammil Murtaza outplayed their respective opponents to win the ladies and junior singles titles at the Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan national tennis championship here at the PTF Complex on Saturday.

Ushna, seeded third in the tournament, convincingly defeated top seed Sara Mansoor in straight sets by 6-4,6-2.

In first set Sara did put up some resistance but Ushna dominated overall by superbly executing her shots to win the set. In the second set, Ushna was even more aggressive from the beginning and soon wrapped it up 6-2 to retain the title.

According to Khalid Rehmani, Secretary Pakistan Tennis Federation, Ushna is the only Pakistani player who has ranking points of WTA to her credit. However, in this national championship, she was seeded third. Recently, she also won the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Tennis Championship after defeating Mahin Aftab with consummate ease.

Meanwhile, in the boys U-18 juniors final, top ranked Muzammil Murtaza also registered a straight sets victory against Yousaf Khan. He comfortably defeated Yousaf in first set by 6-2. Both players, however, exhibited powerful tennis in the next set but ultimately Muzammil prevailed in the end by 6-4.

Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra attended the prize distribution ceremony as chief guest and gave away the trophies and cash prizes to winners and runner ups of all events of the championship.

The chief guest also announced rupees one million for PTF’s development program and promised to support KP Tennis Association and FATA Tennis Association for the development of infrastructure in their areas for promotion of tennis.

Speaking on the occasion, President PTF Salim Saifullah Khan informed the gathering that this year PTF organized several national and international ranking tournaments and the response was tremendous.

He also appreciated President Asian Tennis Federation Anil Khanna, President International Federation Davis Hugerty and Prime Minister of Pakistan for their support in the return of Davis Cup matches to Pakistan after twelve long years. Pakistan will be facing Iran in Islamabad from Feb 3-5, 2017.

Published in Dawn December 25th, 2016