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| October 13, 2001 | Saturday | Rajab 25, 1422 |
Unfancied Ashiq meets top seed Shahzad in final
LAHORE, Oct 12: Top seed Shahzad Khan and unseeded Ashiq Rasool cruised into the final of the ITF international junior tennis ranking championship boys’ singles event, winning their semi-finals in contrasting styles at the Punjab Tennis Association grass courts in Bagh-i-Jinnah Friday.
The favourite Shahzad Ahmad survived an upset before defeating strong rival and third seed Wasif Cheema (Islamabad) in three sets 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 7-5.
Ashiq Rasool who defeated Jan Nisar Ahmad in a marathon quarter-final lasting three hours and 10 minutes Thursday, mustered a 2-0 win against Gulzeb Niazi 6-3, 7-5 in the other semi- final.
In the girls’s singles semi-final, Iram Arshad caused a big upset defeating top seed Nida Rahim 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. Second seed Maira Rahim outplayed Saba Aziz 6-2, 6-2 to enter the final.
The winners of the last episode of the ITF event, Shahzad Khan went to the third set for the first time, after registering facile wins in his previous outings. Wasif Cheema who surrendered the first set meekly 1-6, displayed a remarkable comeback winning the second set in a tie-breaker.
Cheema could have won his semi-final, but in the third set after having a 5-4 lead, he double faulted twice in the 10th game enabling Shahzad, who looked tired, heave a sigh of relief by breaking Wasif’s service to level the scores at 5-5. He held his next game and then again broke Wasif in the 12th, to complete a hard fought win.
Shahzad showed good anticipation in landing his strokes in no man’s land as on various occasions Wasif failed to return the ball. But in the second set Shahzad made some unforced errors as Wasif got into his strides and gave Shahzad a tough time with his deft placements and excellent stroke play.
Ashiq Rasool with a stormy start won the first set 6-3 after breaking Gulzeb Niazi in the 2nd and the 6th games.
Gulzeb resisted well in the second set but eventually lost to the lanky Ashiq, who exhibited good stroke play.
Ashiq broke Gulzeb in the 5th, 9th and 11th games while his opponent could break Ashiq in the 2nd and the 8th games to lose the crucial match rather tamely.
Irum Arshad halted the winning march of the top seed Nida Rahim to enter the final. The match lasted one hour and 15 minutes in which both the girls played baseline tennis. but Iram’s better stamina prevailed which helped her come out the winner.
She gave her superior rival no time to settle down and won the first set 6-2. Nida salvaged some pride winning the second set by an identical margin. But Iram finally won the day, picking up the deciding set 7-5 to stun Nida.
In second pre-final, Nida’s sister Maira Rahim came through an easy winner against Saba Aziz 6-2, 6-2.
In the girls’ doubles final, Nida and Maira defeated Iram and Saba 6-2, 7-5.
In a lone boys’ doubles semi-final, Babar Ali and Ashiq Rasul defeated Gulzeb and Shahrukh Niazi 6-2, 6-3.
The girls’ singles final and boys’ doubles final will be played Saturday starting at 3 pm.
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