Seeded players shine at junior tennis
KARACHI, April 8: Seeded players in all categories lived up to their standing in the NBP Open juniors’ national ranking tennis championship which concluded at Karachi Club on Saturday.
Adil Kohari, who heads national ranking in juniors, recovered from a set down to beat fighting Talha Zubair Surmawala in three marathon sets to lift under-18 crown.
Adil won the battle 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 for the honours.
Talha, however, earned some consolation when he sends Islamabad’s Nofil Kalim packing in same fashion for the under-16 title. The former was home 6-0, 3-6, 10-5.
Nofil punished Jalaluddin Baber 6-0, 6-1 to pick under-14 crown and justify his credentials.
The ladies title, meanwhile, went to Maheen Dada who accounted for Hania Naveed 6-0, 6-0 in the final.
Former Test bowler and chief of bank’s sports department, Iqbal Qasim, who graced the finals, gave away the prizes.
Final results:Juniors’ under-18 singles: Adil Kohari bt Talha Zubair Surmawala 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Boys’ under-16 singles: Talha Zubair Surmawala bt Nofil Kalim 6-0, 3-6, 10-5.
Boys’ under-14 singles: Nofil Kalim (Islamabad) bt Jalauddin Baber (Mirpurkhas) 6-0, 6-1.
Boys’ under-12 singles: Bilal Imran bt Shahzil Malik 8-4.
Ladies singles: Maheen Dada bt Hania Naveed 6-0, 6-0.—Sports Correspondent