Three Pak players in pairs reaching F-2 Futures quarters

KARACHI: Three Pakistani players reached the quarter-finals of men’s doubles category in the $15,000 F-2 Futures at PTF Tennis Complex, Islamabad, on Wednesday.

In the first round, the pair of Ahmed Choudhary from Pakistan and Niklas Johansson from Sweden thrashed the Pakistani duo of Shahzad Khan and Zohair Raza 6-0, 6-2. The pair of Joe Cooper from Great Britain and Matt Seeberger from the US overpowered the Indian duo of Chandril Sood and Lakshit Sood 4-6, 7-6(4), 13-11.

The pair of Abid Ali Akbar from Pakistan and Shamael Chaudhry from Great Britain stunned the second seed Russian duo of Alexander Pavlioutchenkov and Vladimir Polyakov 6-4, 6-1. Third seed pair of Darko Jandric from Serbia and Cheong-Eui Kim from South Korea defeated the Pakistani duo of Heera Ashiq and Malik Abdul Rehman 6-2, 6-3.

Fourth seed Japanese pair of Sora Fukuda and Rio Noguchi beat the Pakistani duo of Mudassir Murtaza and Muzammil Murtaza 6-0, 7-5. The pair of Mohammad Abid from Pakistan and Waqas Malik from Canada won against the duo of Lorenzo Bocchi from Italy and Alexis Canter from Great Britain 7-6(5), 3-6 (10-7).

Top seeds Anton Chekhov from Russia and Kai Wehnelt from Germany beat the duo of Aqeel Khan from Pakistan and Ray Ho from Taipei 6-4, 6-2. However, no Pakistani player could qualify for the quarter-finals in men’s singles category as fifth seed Lorenzo Bocchi from Italy smashed Yousaf Khalil 6-1, 6-2 and sixth seed Alexis Canter from Great Britain beat Pakistan’s top player Aqeel Khan 6-2, 6-4.

In other matches of singles second round, top seed Cheong-Eui Kim from South Korea thrashed Ray Ho from Taipei 6-2 6-3 and third seed Sora Fukuda from Japan whipped Anton Chekhov from Russia 6-1, 6-0. Darko Jandric from Serbia surprised eighth seed Niklas Johansson from Sweden 6-1, 7-6(5); fourth seed Kai Wehnelt from Germany defeated Worovin Kumthonkittikul from Thailand 6-3, 6-2; seventh seed Hamidreza Nadaf from Iran beat Dmitry Myagkov from Russia 6-2, 6-2; and second seed Rio Noguchi from Japan defeated Saida’lo Saidkarimov from Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-3.