KARACHI, July 28: Playing after a year’s layoff, unseeded Sana Bhagat created quite a stir when she prevailed over second seed Saba Aziz in three sets to march into ladies singles final of Arif Habib Tennis Championship at Karachi Club on Friday.

After dropping the opener 4-6, Sana recovered to claim the following two sets 6-4, 6-1 against her opponent in the battle which lasted over one and a half hour.

She is drawn to meet top seed Sara Mehboob (Islamabad) who in the earlier semi-final accounted for former National hard court champion, Seher Khwaja, 6-4, 6-4.

Though Sana has won quite a number of laurels in Sindh ranking competitions, national ranking title has eluded her so far. She was delighted on her triumph and attributed to her strong serves which helped earn winners.

Top seed Sara Mehboob broke Seher Khwaja’s serve twice to win the match in straight sets. Sara was quick to adjust on hard court after playing a tournament on the clay at Cairo and raced to lead 4-2 in the first set.

She broke her opponent’s serve in the ninth game after 4-4 and went on to win 6-4.

In the second she recovered from 2-4 down not only to equalise but was home 6-4.

Top seed Yasir Khan ended the winning run of unseeded Shaheryar Wali when he notched up 6-4, 6-4 win to win the juniors U-17 singles crown.

Brothers Aqeel and Jalil won the men’s doubles title following walkover against Asim Shafik-Nomi Qamar.

Nomi sustained injuries in a road accident while coming to play his match.

Syed Zuhair Raza and Mustafa Zaidi qualified to meet each other in the boys U-13 singles final. The former beat Abdul Rehman 6-1, 6-2 while the latter disposed off Shamoon 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals.

Results:

Ladies singles (semi-finals): Sara Mehboob bt Seher Khwaja 6-4, 6-4; Sana Bhagat bt Saba Aziz 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Boys U-13 singles (semi-finals): Syed Zuhair Raza bt Abdul Rehman 6-1, 6-2; Mustafa Zaidi bt Shamoon 6-1, 6-1.

Juniors U-17 singles (final): Yasir Khan bt Shaheryar Wali 6-4, 6-4.

Men’s doubles (semi-final): Aqeel Khan-Jalil Khan bt Inam Gul-Mahmood Khan 6-2, 7-6 (5); (final): Aqeel Khan-Jalil Khan w/o Asim Shafik-Nomi Qamar.

Veteran’s doubles (semi-finals): Altaf Hussain-Shahid Hussain bt Mehboob Khan-Gul Hameed 6-1, 6-2.

Saturday’s fixtures:

Boys U-13 singles (final), juniors doubles (final) 11.00am; men’s singles (semifinals) 2.30pm; ladies singles (final) 4.00pm; seniors doubles (final) 5.30pm.