ISLAMABAD: Top seed Huzaifa Abdul Rehman kept his winning streak going as he dished out a 6-2, 6-3 thrashing to Thailand’s Taentawan Taddeo Majoli Maggioli to reach the semi-finals of the Syed Tajammul Abbas ITF Pakistan World Junior Ranking Tennis Championships here PTF Tennis Complex on Thursday.

On a rain-hit day, Huzaifa started his match with combination of his powerful forehand down the line and cross court winners. He did not allow his opponent to settle down in the match. While Huzaifa showed his consistency and pace of control throughout the match, Shoaib Khan — another local hope — could not survive and lost his quarter final to fourth seed Berk Ulas Enc from Turkey in a thrilling encounter.

Shoaib lost the first set 6-4 but rebounded superbly to win the second 6-1 with some stunning forehand and backhand drives but made an unforced error in the fifth game of the deciding set to lose 6-3.

Also advancing to the semi-finals were the Kuwaiti duo of Bader Alabdullah and Essa Qabazard. While Alabdullah cruised past Thai Nathan Jattavapornvanti 6-2, 6-4; Qabazard overcame Turkey’s Tiogan Makzume 6-2, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 in a thriller.

The rains meant the girls singles quarter-finals started late and only three were completed by the time of filing of this report.

Seventh-seeded Anjalika Kurera of Sri Lanka battled past Korean Soo Ha Jang 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, Russia’s Arina Valitova beat Malaysian Hannah Seen Ean Yip after a long first-set tiebreaker 7-6 (15-13), 6-1 and third seed Aysegul Mert of Turkey ousted Hong Kong’s Kit Yi Kaye Au-Yeung in other three-setter 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2019