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| October 6, 2001 | Saturday | Rajab 18, 1422 |
Shahzad faces Suleman in final
LAHORE, Oct 5: Top seed Shahzad Khan (Faisalabad) and second seed Suleman Bashir (Lahore), will lock horns in the International World Junior Ranking Tennis Championship Men’s single final, after both won their respective semi-finals in straight sets at the Punjab Tennis Association grass courts in Bagh-i-Jinnah Friday.
Shahzad Khan mustered a well-contested win against Shahrukh Niazi 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. However, Suleman Bashir got an easy win against unseeded Muteeb Shah 7-5, 6-1.
The final will be held on Sunday at 3pm.
In the girls’ singles, Nida Rahim and her sister Maira Rahim will meet each other in the final.
Shahzad who remained impressive throughout the championship, received good opposition from the 8th seeded Shahrukh. Both the players mostly played a baseline game, but Shahzad occasionally came ahead and his placing near the net earned him points at crucial stages. Shahrukh who competed well in a match which lasted 90 minutes but made some unforced errors in returning the ball.
Shahrukh took a whirlwind start when broke the very first service of Shahzad and holding his own he gained an early lead of 2-0. Shahzad crawled back to make it 2-2. He held his service in the third game and then broke Shahrukh’s service in the fourth game. From here onwards, Shahzad and Shahrukh kept their services to lock the scores at 6-all and put the decision on tie-break. Shahzad proved too good and dropped only two points to win the tie-break and first set.
In the second set, Shahrukh again got 2-0 lead. He broke Shahzad service in the third game. But the strong Shahzad replied with two break one in the fifth game and the second in the 7th game to win the set 6-4 and the pre-final, too.
Unseeded Muteeb Pasha who crushed sixth seeded Sohail Khan in pre-quarter-final took aggressive start against Suleman.
Suleman came from behind to level the score 2-2 in the first set. Suleman went ahead 3-2 by breaking Pasha’s service in the fifth game. In next game, Pasha managed to break Suleman service to again level the score 3-3. Keeping their services both were again tide at 5-5 before Suleman broke Pasha’s service in the 11th game and then holding his own won the first set 7-5. The second set proved one-sided as Suleman displayed high order form and had outclassed Pasha in all departments to clinch the set after dropping only one game.
In the girls’ singles semi-finals, sisters Nida Rahim and Maira Rahim, defeated their respective opponents to earn the right of meeting each other in the finals. This reminds one of their elder sisters, Mariam and Haleema who held the No.1 and No.2 rankings in Pakistan for several years.
Nida won easily against young Saba Aziz 6-3, 6-2. But Maira had to bring out the best in her to beat Irum Arshad in the other semi-final. The match went to three sets and Nida prevailed 6-2, 3-6,6-2.
Later, Nida and Maira combined well to win the girls’ doubles final by beating the pair of Irum Arshad and Saira Babri 6-0, 6-1.
In the first semifinal in which pairs of brothers contested each other, Gulzeb Niazi with his younger brother Shahrukh Niazi proved too good against Imran Rasool and Ashiq Rasool, winning 6- 4, 6-3.
In second pre-final, Shahzad Khan and Munir Ashiq toppled the pair of Akbar Pataudi and Wasif Cheema 6-4,6-3.
Saturday’s programme Girls’ singles final at 3.pm; Boys doubles final at 3pm.
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