Jalil, Shahzad advance in clay court tennis
ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: Jalil Khan, brother of Pakistan’s top tennis star Aqeel Khan, made his way to the second round in Subh-e-Nau National Clay Court Tennis Championship by beating Jibran Muhammadi in a three-set contest here at Islamabad Club Courts on Wednesday.
Muhammadi posed a stiff resistance to Jalil’s first round onslaught of 6-3 and succeeded in beating him in the second set 5-7. However, Jalil regained his ground to beat him in the third set 6-4.
In the other matches of men’s singles category, Hidayat Khan overpowered Hammad Mujtaba after a hard competition 7-6, 7-5. However, Shahzad and Yasir ensured their slot in the second round easily by beating Malik and Ahmed 6-3, 6-1 and 6-2, 7-5, respectively.
In doubles’ second round pair of Irfan and Hidayat reserved their slot in pre-quarterfinals by beating Wakeel and Asad in a one-sided match 6-1, 6-2.
Similarly, experienced campaigner Asim Shafiq pairing with Jibran Muhammadi proved too hard for Hammad and Waqas posing a simple defeat on opponents 6-0, 6-1. Ali and Usman lost to Munir and Ahmed despite their show of resistance till the last moment 6-3, 7-6 (3). Taimur and Abid defeated Mubashar and Abbas 6-2, 7-5.
In the ladies’ singles, Mahvish Chishtie reached next round beating Nabila Naz 6-0, 6-0. More to qualify were Shahida Kausar who overpowered Humphries 6-2, 6-3, Sara Mansoor who defeated Umm-e-Habiba 6-0, 6-2, Ushna Sohail who beat Anam Farooq 6-0, 6-0 and Qurrat-Ul-Ain won over Maryam Shah 6-2, 6-1. Anosha Aslam and Saba Aziz were given walkover and slot in next round.—Agencies