Badminton: Favourite Wajid Ali extended by Shabbar
LAHORE, April 27: Top seed Wajid Ali, Zeeshan Omer, Rizwan Azam and Zafar Tasneem reached the last four in men's singles of the All-Pakistan badminton ranking tournament in Faisalabad on Thursday.
National champion Wajid had to work hard to eliminate Shabbar Hussain in three sets 21-16, 19-21, 21-17.
The other quarterfinals were one sided affairs.
Zeeshan, Pakistan number 2 beat upcoming Hashir Bashir 21-16, 21-17.
Zafar defeated former national champion Aamer Islam 21-19, 21-17.
Rizwan got a walkover against Ahsan Qamar, who could not turn up due to injury.
In the women singles, national champion Asma Butt carved out a victory against Sara Mohmand 21-16, 21-15.
Farzana Ali stretched to three sets by a local player Shehnaz Khan 21-19, 17-21, 21-18.
Uzma Butt outplayed upcoming Sara Khan in straight sets 21-15, 21-17.
Aiysha Akram, a former national champion, defeated Saima Manzoor 21-18, 21-17.
In the women doubles semifinals, Asma and Uzma Butt defeated Sara Mohmand and Saima 21-17, 21-15 to enter the finals.
In the second semifinals Aiysha and Sara Khan edged past Farzana and Shehnaz 21-18, 21-17.
Attique and Rizwan Azam reached the semifinals of the men's doubles, ousting Danish and Kashif in a hard fought three sets, 21-18, 17-21, 21-19.
Zeeshan and Zafar overpowered Hashir and Ijaz in straight sets 21-15, 21-16 and Aamer and Shabbar defeated Faisal and Atif 21-19, 21-18 to make it to the last four stage.