34 foreign players in Tajammul Abbas Junior Tennis

KARACHI: As many as 34 foreign players are to participate in Syed Tajammul Abbas ITF Pakistan Junior Tennis Championship that is to be played in Islamabad from February 18-23.

There are 11 foreign players in the main draw and nine in the qualifying draw. There are 14 girls also in the event. Pakistan’s Huzaifa Abdul Rehman, Nauman Aftab, and Saqib Hayat are the top three seeds in the event, which is to be played on hard courts.

Turkey’s Mina Toglukdemir and Aysegul Mert are top seed and second seed in girls’ main draw. There are only three Pakistani girls in the main draw. The boys’ category has singles main draw of 32 places and qualifying draw of eight places, while the doubles draw is of 16 places.

The girls’ category has no qualifying draw and the main draw is of 32 places, while the doubles draw is of eight places. Meanwhile, a meeting of the organising committee of this event was held at PTF Tennis Complex, Islamabad, on Friday. “All the arrangements have been finalised,” stated tournament director Khalil Chughtai.

He added that all the participating players and on-site alternate players have to personally sign-in with the referee for the qualifying matches that will be played on Saturday (today) and Sunday.

The foreign players are from the US, Hong Kong, Turkey, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, South Korea, Germany, Kazakhstan, France, Russia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.