Ghalia topples Shabnam in National TT clash

KARACHI: Shabnam Bilal of Habib Bank Limited was dethroned when she lost to former champion and her teammate Ghalia Mohsin 3-4 in the women’s singles quarter-final of the National Table Tennis Championship at Bahawalpur on Tuesday.
Shabnam said that it was a good game. “It was a fine match and I was leading 2-1 and then twice the set score was equally locked. Ghalia is a also a good player and she played well against me today,” she told ‘The News’ after her shock exit.
After losing the first set Shabnam fought back strongly by winning the next two sets to take 2-1 lead. Ghalia then got the next two sets to take a 3-2 lead before Shabnam fought back with a stunning 12-10 claim the sixth set to once again square the game. However, Ghalia kept her cool and overcame her opponent 11-8 in the decisive seventh set to move into the semi-finals.
The score was 11-9, 2-11, 6-11, 11-4, 13-11, 12-10, 11-8 in Ghalia’s favour.
Maleeha Khursheed (HBL), Raheela Kashif (HBL) and Ghazala Basit (WAPDA) were the other who cruised to the semi-finals.
In the second quarter-final, Maleeha outgunned Tayyaba Suleman of WAPDA 4-0 with the set score of 13-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.
Raheela then whacked Ayesha Faheem (WAPDA) 4-0 in the third quarter-final. The score was 11-4, 11-4, 11-7, 11-6. Ghazala Basit of WAPDA then edged her teammate Sidra Sattar 4-0 to complete the semi-finals frame. The score was 11-5, 11-2, 11-5, 11-8.
In the semi-finals scheduled late Tuesday night, Maleeha was set to face her sister Ghalia while Ghazala was going to meet Raheela.
Earlier, former champion Ayesha Iqbal of WAPDA was exited after losing to her teammate Ghazala Basit in the pre-quarter-final.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, defending champion Asim Qureshi, former champion Salim Abbas, Shujaat Ali and Ali Faisal qualified for the semi-finals.
In the first quarter-final Ali Faisal (WAPDA) edged his teammate Bilal Yasin 4-2 with the set score of 11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5.
Salim Abbas of WAPDA defeated Yasir Bhatti of Railways 13-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 to qualify for the last four.
In the third quarter-final, Asim Qureshi of WAPDA upstaged Asim Aziz of Chromatic 4-0. The score was 11-1, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7.
Shujaat A li of WAPDA then overcame his teammate Faheem Raza 4-1 to make into the semi-finals. The score was 12-10, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9.
Salim will face Ali Faisal and Shujaat will meet Asim in the semi-finals.