Fahad, Fatima win table tennis singles titles

KARACHI: Fahad Khwaja of Army and Fatima Khan of Chromatex won the junior boys singles and junior girls singles titles, respectively, at the Panasonic 24th National Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championship, which concluded here at the Islamia Club Gymnasium on Sunday.

On the final day of the four-day event, Fahad wore the junior boys’ singles crown when he whacked his teammate Ubaid Shah 4-3 after a sweating affair. After losing the first game 8-11, Fahad staged a strong fightback by securing an easy 11-4 victory in the second game. Fahad took the lead by clinching the third set 11-5.

Shah bounced back when he won the fourth set 11-6 to make it 2-2. Fahad again took the lead with an 11-6 win. The sixth game went to Shah which made it 3-3.

However, Fahad showed a lot of determination at this stage, bringing into application the best he had and managed an 11-6 victory to seal a 4-3 triumph.

The junior girls singles’ final remained one-sided with Fatima Khan defending it strongly through straight sets win over Hareem Anwar of Sindh, who failed to offer any worthy resistance.

The set score was 11-9, 11-4 and 11-9. Ejaz Ali Shah, CEO Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Ltd, distributed cash prizes among the winners. Also present were Pakistan Table Tennis Federation’s (PTTF) president SM Sibtain, Karachi Table Tennis Association’s (KTTA) president Tahir Loan and Sindh Table Tennis Association’s (STTA) chief Azher Khursheed. More than 100 players representing the four provinces, Islamabad, Chromatex Chemicals, Railways, Army and Habib Bank Limited (HBL) showed their worth in the competitions. The event was organised by the KTTA in collaboration with the STTA and the PTTF.