KARACHI Seasoned campaigner and top seed Aqeel Khan sweat for two hours to overcome fighting third seed Nomi Qamar in three agonising sets to land men's singles title in the Sindh Open ranking tennis championship at a local court on Thursday.
Aqeel, the country's top tennis player, conceded second set to post 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory over his rival to claim his second Sindh ranking crown in two months.
His victim in the preceding final held in February was sibling Yasir Khan.
But it was talented Syed Zuhair Raza who caught the eye by picking up a double crown.
He maintained his ascendancy handing 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Omer Shahid Maniya for the juniors' singles and later teamed up with Fahad Mahmood to rout Nameer Shamsi and Sanwal Memon pair 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in juniors' doubles.
This is Zuhair's third straight juniors' singles title of this year.
Seher Khwaja, a former national hard court champion, won the ladies singles title by getting the better of Sara Ahmed 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
Both of them qualified for the final after attaining top two slots in the round robin competition played on pro-set.
The boys' under-15 and under-13 singles titles went to Nameer Shamsi and Talha Zubair Surmawala respectively while Sarwan Memon won the boys' under-11 title.
Aqeel Khan received a winning purse of Rs12,000 and a trophy while Nomi earned Rs5,000 and runner up trophy from secretary sports Sindh, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui.
The total prize money of the event was raised from Rs30,000 to Rs36,000 by the organisers.
Final results
Men's singles Aqeel Khan bt Nomi Qamar 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Ladies singles Seher Khwaja bt Sara Ahmed 6-2, 6-4.
Men's doubles Robin Das and Vinod Das bt Shamael and Faraz Ahsan 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
Juniors' under-17 singles Syed Zuhair Raza bt Omer Shahid Maniya 6-1, 6-2.
Juniors' under-17 doubles Syed Zuhair Raza and Fahad Mahmood bt Nameer Shamsi and Sanwal Memon 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
Boys' under-15 singles Nameer Shamsi bt Farhan Mustafa 6-4, 6-2.
Boys' and girls under-13 singles Talha Zubair Surmawala bt Sarwan Memon 8-3.
Boys' and girls under-11 singles Sarwan Memon bt Maheen Dada 8-7.
