All-Pakistan Tennis: Ushna, Sara to fight for ladies crown: Aqeel, Muzammil in men’s final

LAHORE: Top seed Aqeel Khan and Muzammil Murtaza qualified for the men’s singles final while Ushna Suhail and Sara Mansoor squeezed into the ladies singles final of the 3rd Nayza All- Pakistan Open Tennis Tournament here at the PLTA courts on Monday. Aqeel Khan will now face Muzammil in the men’ singles final at 2.00 pm on Tuesday whereas ladies singles final will be contested earlier between Sara Mansoor and Ushna Suhail at 10.00 am.

In the men’s singles semifinals, Pakistan’s longest serving number one tennis player Aqeel Khan took it little time to outclass Mudassar Murtaza in straight sets. Aqeel conceded just two points to clinch the first set 6-2 while he was more severe in the second set, where he just conceded one point to win the set 6-1, thus booked berth in the final against Muzammil Murtaza, who stunned second seed M Abid by 6-2, 7-6(1). Muzammil dominated the match right from the word go, as he played powerful shots to rout Abid 6-2 in the first set. Abid bounced back in second set and made it 6-6. But once again, Muzammil showed his class and won the tie break 7-6(1) to breeze into the final. The ladies singles semifinals proved to be one-sided affairs as in the first semifinal, one of the promising Pakistani female tennis player Sara Mansoor thrashed young Noor Malik in straight sets. Sara won the first set 6-1 and then never allowed Noor to score even a single point, winning the second set 6-0. Pakistan’s world ranking player Ushna Suhail of ZTBL outclassed Esha Jawad also in straight sets. Ushna won the first game 6-0 and grabbed the second 6-1 to set final clash against Sara Mansoor. Rafum Group COE Zahid Hussain will grace the occasion as chief guest while PLTA chairmanIftikhar Ahmad Rao, secretary Rashid Malik will also be present on the occasion.

In men’s doubles finals, Muzamil Murtaza/Mudassar Murtaza outpaced M Abid/Waqas Malik by 6-2, 6-3 to clinch the In seniors doubles 45 plus final, Rashid Malik/Maj Adnan beat Israr Gul/Jehanzeb Khan 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 to annex the title while the seniors doubles 60 plus title was won by Waqar Nisar/M Babar, who defeated Rai Zahid Zafar/Dr Naveed by 4-6,6-3, 12-10.

In U-18 semifinals, M Shoaib beat Ahmad Asjad 6-3, 6-4 and Abdullah Adnan beat Ahmad Kamil 6-2, 6-1 to qualify for the finals. In U-14 semifinals, Hamid Israr beat Hassan Ali 6-2, 7-6(3) and Farman Shakeel outlasted Abdul Hanan Khan 6-0, 6-2. In U-10 semifinals, Abubakar Talha thrashed Rai Waleed 8-0 and Hamza Ali Rizwan routed Ameer Mazari 8-4.