BENAZIR BHUTTO ITF FUTURES: Noguchi, Wehnelt set up showdown

ISLAMABAD: Second seed Rio Noguchi (Japan) set up singles final clash against Germany’s Kai Wehnelt following victory in the pre-finals of the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed ITF Futures Tennis Championships here at Islamabad Tennis Complex courts Friday.

Third seed Wehnelt had rather easy straight sets win against Saida’lo Saidkarimov (Uzbekistan) 6-0, 7-5 while Rio Noguchi (Japan) worked hard to beat Hamidreza Nadaf (Iran) 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.

The German already had first laugh as together with Anton Chekhov (Russia) he annexed men’s doubles title beating Japanese pair of Ken Onishi and Rio Noguchi 6-3, 7-5.

German and Russian duo put up forceful show in the doubles event managing to break their opponents serve once in the first set.

In the second neck and neck fight, Wehnelt and his partner restored to forceful tennis breaking their opponent in the extended set to take the match and doubles title.

“Winning doubles match against the opponents, who would be there in the singles final is good a omen. I hope to play with the same vein in the singles final as well,” Wehnelt said.

The German also enjoys upper hand against Noguchi in the singles event as in their previous meeting last week, he defeated Japanese in three sets to make it to the semi-finals.

“I have beaten him in last Futures event and hopefully I would repeat my performance again,” Wehnelt said.

He was seen at his best in the men’s singles semi-finals where he managed easy win against his opponent. Noguchi who somewhat happened to be inconsistent got the better of Iranian opponent. It was in the second set in the semi-finals that Noguchi struggled to match the Iranian. In ladies’ singles final that was played for National Championship, Ushna Suhail again proved too good for Sarah Mahboob winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-4.

Results: Men’s singles semi-finals: Kai Wehnelt (GER) bt Saida’lo Saidkarimov (UZB) 6-0, 7-5; Rio Noguchi (JPN) bt Hamidreza Nadaf (IRI) 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.

Men’s doubles final: Anton Chekhov (RUS) & Kai Wehnelt (GER) bt Ken Onishi (JPN) & Rio Noguchi (JPN) 6-3, 7-5.

Benazir Bhutto National Ranking Tennis: Ladies’ singles final: Ushna Suhail bt Sarah Mahboob 6-0, 6-4.

Boys’ Under-18 singles semi-finals: Shoaib Khan bt Abdullah Adnan 6-3, 7-5; Ahmed Kamil bt Ahmed Asjad 7-5, 2-6, 6-4;

Boys’ Under-14 singles final: Sami Zeb bt Hamza Roman 6-2, 6-3. Boys/girls’ Under-10 singles final: Hamza Roman bt Ali Zain 4-0, 4-0.