Top stars reach Pak Open Tennis quarters

LAHORE: Leading players including Aqeel Khan, M Abid and Murtaza brothers qualified for the quarterfinals of the 3rd EBM Pakistan Open Tennis Championship 2018 here at PLTA courts on Tuesday.

In the first match of the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals, M Shoaib beat Aqib Hayat 7-5, 6-3, Muzamil Murtaza defeated Abid Ali Akbar 6-3, 6-4 in the second match, Yousaf Khalil edged out Ejaz Ahmad Khan 7-6, 6-2in the third match, Heera Ashiq crushed Omer Babar 6-0, 6-0, Shehzad Khan routed Abdullah Adnan 6-1, 6-2, Mudassar Murtaza beat Saqib Hayat 6-4, 6-3, M Abid outclassed Ahmad Ch 6-1, 6-1 and top seed Aqeel Khan thrashed Barkat Ullah 6-1, 6-0 in the last match of the day.

In the boys’ under-18 first round matches, M Shoaib beat Ahmad Ehtesham 6-1, 6-1, Izhar Iftikhar beat Hasheesh Kumar 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, Aqib Hayat beat Faizan Fayyaz 6-2, 6-2, Nalain Abbas beat Adnan Khan 6-0, 6-0, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman beat M Farooq 6-0, 6-0, Hamza bin Rehan beat Subhan bin Salik 7-5, 6-3 and Saqib Hayat beat Asim Gul 6-1, 6-0.

In the under-14 pre-quarterfinals, Sami Zeb beat M Hadin 4-0, 4-0, Uzair Khan beat Ehtesham Arif 2-4, 4-0, 5-3, Yahya Ehtisham beat Hamza Jawad 4-0, 5-3, Farman Shakeel beat Husnain Ali 4-0, 4-0, 5-3, Hasheesh Kumar beat Ahmad Nael 4-0, 4-0 and Abdul Hanan Khan beat M Farooq 4-0, 4-0 and Hamid Israr beat Bilal Asim 4-1, 4-1. The men’s singles quarterfinals will be played today (Wednesday) at 9:30 am while the ladies singles first round matches will be contested at 3:30 pm.