Aqeel, Ushna crowned HTR Tennis champs

LAHORE: Pakistan’s number one ladies and men’s tennis pair of Aqeel Khan and Ushna Suhail claimed the 4th Hassan Tariq Raheem Master Tennis Cup with pulsating wins over their respective rivals here at Lahore Gymkhana courts on sunny Sunday.

In the under-18 boy’s final, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman won the title after fighting all ends. Having already won the doubles title while pairing with Pakistan’s star player Aisamul Haq Qureshi, Aqeel had a tough time in the final against Muhammad Abid. Aqeel did have some hurdles in the way to the final but experience prevailed over the lowly ranked players, who showed the number one that he had to earn win.

Aqeel got to a flying start in the match which in turn got to be a pulsating encounter. Aqeel would have thought after winning the opening set 6-1 that his return home would be early. but Abid tested Aqeels nerves in the second set.

It was Aqeel’s experience of playing long duration matches that kept Abid struggling. Abid’s fight extended the second set to a tie break but Aqeel came back strongly to every serve Abid served. 6-7 (5) and in the final set Aqeel evaporated all the guts from Abid’s aggeration and fight and won the set 6-3 and the match. Chairman Lahore Gymkhana Kamran Lashari was the chief guest of the finals and distributed the prizes among the winners and other participants while Khawaja Ahmed Tariq Raheem was also present among the guests. In the ladies final, Ushna Suhail was believed to face tough fight from Sara Mahboob Khan but the latter melted maybe under pressure of the continuous wins of the former in the national circuit. Ushna kept Sara at bay in the opening set, did not allowing her even a single point to have a 6-0 win.

In the second set, Sara showed some deliverance but only for two points with a reason being that Ushna was in thorough control of the match. Ultimate, Ushna saw Sara sink to 6-0 and 6-2 difference.

Earlier in the day, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman and Muhammad Shoaib warmed up the tennis fans with a closely-contested under-18 boys final. Huzaifa started the match on a positive note but Shoaib bounced back incredibly.

Then both the players fought all ends to settle the final in the third set but Huzaifa turned out to be the better bet to claim the 6-1, 3-6 and 7-6 win.