Aging Hamid stuns young Usman in tennis

KARACHI: Hamid-ul-Haq, 53, stunned fifth seed Usman Rafique, 23, after a marathon clash in the men’s first round of Kulsum Saifullah Khan National Tennis Tournament at PTF Complex in Islamabad on Monday.
In the opening set both the players involved each other in long rallies and at one stage it appeared that Hamid would get tired and concede the match but he managed to take the first set 7-5. In the second set, Usman used wide array of shots to outplay Hamid 6-1.
But the former Davis Cupper Hamid was in no mood to give up and mustered all his energy to take a commanding lead of 4-0 in the third and final set.
In the fifth game, Usman held his serve and broke Hamid to narrow the gap to 4-2.
Hamid again took the lead 5-2 but Usman again managed to hold his serve to trail closely by 3-5.
But Hamid responded by holding his serve to take the match 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. The match took two hours and 40 minutes to complete.