March 29, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 25, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 28: A galaxy of bridge stars from across the country will be in action in the Alcatel Pakistan Open Tournament which deals off on Saturday at the Islamabad Club.

Predicting a winner from a highly competitive field in the two-day competition may be too close to call.

Punters comprising Javed Khalid, Shauq Hussain, Fehmina Shauq, Tahir Abbas, Ali Abbas and Hamid Zaman are the winners of the Yummy National Championship and should enjoy eminence as tournament favourites.

However, they will miss the guile of star performer Javed Khalid who has opted to play for Tariq Aces alongside Tariq Aziz, Saeed Akhtar, Javed Chaudhry, Wng. Cdr Wajahat Suri and Uzair Kamal.

But it is Team Allana, with the pairing of Sultan Siddiqui- Rasheed Jaffer and Sarfraz Ahmad-Tehsin Gheewala that has the credentials of a winning outfit.

In an impressive performance, Sultan and Rasheed reached the final round of the 2002 Montreal Open Pairs World Championship. Sarfraz is the runner-up of a World Individual Junior Championship while Tehsin has made several appearances for the Pakistan junior team.

Stiff resistance is expected from Lipton comprising M.A. Ansari, Abdul Khaliq, Nasir Khan and Tariq Rasheed. Khaliq and Nasir are acclaimed as the best exponents of the Precision system on the national circuit.

The tournament is based on the Swiss movement with the winner emerging after seven rounds of 16 boards each.