Shoaib in tennis semis

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Shoaib continued his giant-killing run as he disposed of Heera Ashiq to reach the semi-finals of the 5th Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan National Ranking Tennis Tournament at the PTF Complex on Friday.

Shoaib survived some anxious moments in the first set of the men’s singles quarter-final to beat Heera 7-6(4), 6-4. In other quarter-finals, ageing Aqeel Khan lost the opening set before beating Yusuf Khalil 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-1, Mohammad Abid defeated Mudassir Murtaza 6-2, 6-4 and Muzammil Murtaza downed Barkatullah 6-0, 6-3.

Mahin Aftab was leading Sara Mansoor 7-5 when the top seed conceded the women’s singles semi-final due to illness. In the final, Mahin will play Sarah Mahboob Khan, who defeated Noor Malik of ZTBL 6-2, 6-1.

Other results: Men’s doubles quarter-finals: M Abid & Waqas Malik w/o Shakirullah & Abbas Khan; Ahmed Chaud­hary & Barkatullah bt Yousaf Khalil & Heera Ashiq 6-3, 6-4; Mud­assir Murtaza & Moh­ammad Shoaib bt Imran Bhatti & Mian Bilal 6-1, 6-1.

Boys’ U18 singles quarter-finals: Hamid Israr bt Aqib Hayat 7-5, 6-4; Subhan bin Salik bt Mahatir Muhammad 6-3, 6-2; Hashish Kumar bt Faizan Fayyaz 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; Mohammad Shoaib bt Nalyn Abbas 6-3, 6-2.

Boys’ U14 singles quarter-finals: Haider Ali Rizwan bt Husnain Ali Rizwan 4-2, 4-2; Yahya Musa Luni bt Saim Shahzad 4-0, 4-0; Bilal Asim bt Asad Zaman 4-0, 4-0; Shahsawar bt M Hamza Asim 4-1, 4-5(5), 4-1.