Aqeel, Abid win singles matches in Asian Games

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Aqeel Khan and Abid Ali Akbar won their singles matches in Asian Games on Sunday.

Aqeel beat Munkhbaatar Badrakh of Mongolia 6-1, 6-1 and Abid defeated Susanto Ignatius Anthony of Indonesia 7-6, 5-1 in the first round. Abid will play against Duckhee Lee of Korea and Aqeel against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round.

In the mixed doubles category, the pair of Mohammad Abid and Ushna Suhail lost to the Thai duo of Kumkhum Luksika and Ratiwatana Sonchat 2-6, 0-6 in the second round. The pair of Muzammil Murtaza and Sara Mahboob was beaten by the Indonesian duo of Christopher Benjamin Rungkat and Aldila Sutjiadi 3-6, 2-6 in the second round.

The Pakistani pairs got byes in the first round. Mohammad Abid and Muzammil will be playing against the Uzbek duo of Farrukh Dustov and Denis Istomin in the second round of men’s doubles on Monday (today).

Aqeel and Abid Ali will be up against the duo of Chengpeng Hsieh and Tsung-Hua Yang from Chinese Taipei. Aqeel has been nominated by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) president as the playing captain.

The PTF did not get approval from the organisers to include Samir Iftikhar in the team in place of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. Aisam is busy participating in the US Open (Grand Slam) and the dates of the event coincided with the dates of the Asian Games.

The government failed to give funds to the PSB to send the earlier-nominated and accredited Inam-ul-Haq as the non-playing captain of the team, stated a PTF official.

SHOOTING

Meanwhile, Aamer Iqbal scored 72 and Farrukh Nadeem scored 70 in the qualification round one in Trap category of the shooting competitions. Aamer shared the top position with an Indian shooter on the first day by scoring 24, 25, 23.

Farrukh stood 15th with the scores of 24, 23, 23.

In 10 meter Air Rifle (mixed team) category, Pakistan stood 19th, failing to qualify for the finals.

Pakistan’s Minhal Suhail and Zeeshan-ul-Shakir scored 807.5 points (202.6, 200.3, 201.2, 203.4) in four rounds.

Minhal scored 399.8 points (101.3, 98.4, 100.0, 100.1) and Zeeshan scored 407.7 points (101.3, 101.9, 101.2, 103.3).

Pakistan’s 10 shooters are participating in Asian Games.