Muzamal stuns Aqeel in National Ranking Tennis semis

LAHORE: Muzamal Murtaza upset top seed Aqeel Khan while Shehzad Khan stunned Mudassar Murtaza in the Governor’s Cup National Ranking Tennis Tournament men’s singles semifinals played at Chenab Club, Faisalabad on Friday.

As par information received here, third seed Muzamil, who has given tough time to Aqeel Khan in the final of Shehryar Malik Memorial Tennis in Lahore recently, at last succeeded in the achieving his target of taming top seed Aqeel in this event’s semifinal by 7-6, 6-4. Muzamil was looking very confident right from the word go. Both the players successfully held their service games till six-all. Tie break was played at this stage, which was won by Muzamil to win the first set 7-6. In the second set, Aqeel was broken at four-all. Muzamil then played exceptionally and first took 5-4 lead and on his serve, he sealed the set at 6-4.

In the second semifinals, Shehzad Khan overcame Muddasir Murtaza by 6-3, 6-4. Experienced Shehzad utilized his vast experience to overpower his young and spirited opponent by 6-3 and then faced some tough resistance in the second set before winning it by 6-4, thus registered a convincing win and set a final clash against Muzamil Murtaza.

In veteran doubles over 55, Rashid Malik (ZTBL)/Inam-ul-Haq overwhelmed Brig Waheed/Qaisar Iqbal 6-1, 6-1. In boys’ singles under-18 semifinals, Ahmed Kamil played well against Hamid Israr and outlasted him by 6-4, 6-3 while in another semifinal of U-18, Sami Zeb had to struggle hard to beat Mahateer Muhammad 6-3, 0-6, 10-6 to book berth in the final against Ahmed. In boys’ under-14 semifinals, Hamza Roman beat M Talha Khan 6-3, 6-1 while Hamid Israr beat Mahateer 6-3, 6-1.