Aqeel to compete in Ebrahim Merchant tennis

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top ranked tennis player Aqeel Khan will be playing a Sindh-ranking tennis event next week after a gap of more than one year.

Aqeel is top seed for men’s singles category in the 1st Ebrahim Merchant tennis championship which commences from Sunday (tomorrow) at synthetic tennis courts of Karachi Club.

The last Sindh-ranking tennis event Aqeel played was Westbury Championship in January 2015. “He did not get time to play any Sindh-ranking event during this period,” said Senior Vice President Sindh Tennis Association (STA) Khalid Rehmani while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that Aqeel was focusing on national-level tennis events and most of the time he had been out of Karachi. “This time he is in Karachi so he is playing this event,” said Khalid.

As many as 120 players will vie for Rs25,000 prize money the event offers, which appears quite meager considering the efforts of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) for the promotion of tennis through increased prize money for its events.

“This is a memorial event, so the prize money is not substantial. But we will increase it during the event since Aqeel is also playing,” said Khalid, adding that PTF had enhanced the prize money of only national-level events.

He added that the Championship was named after the country’s top chartered accounted who passed away last year. “More than 120 entries have been received for various events,” said Khalid, adding that the organisers had finalised seedings as most of the players participating in this event were from Karachi and Hyderabad.

Ibrahim Iltifat is seeded second in men’s singles.

In juniors 17 and under singles category Talha Suhail is top seed and Ebad Sarwar is seeded second.

In 15 & under singles, Amin Shafi is the top seed and Zubair Raja is seeded second.

Rayyan Suhail is top seed and Yahya Ehtisham second seed in 13 & under singles category.

Khalid stated that one event for special boys and two events of soft tennis would also be contested during the championship week with support from Para Sports Pakistan and Pakistan Soft Tennis Association.