KARACHI, July 13: Usman Ejaz a 15-year-old lad from Quetta, caused the biggest upset to date, when he shut out top seed M. Ahmed Aslam 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to book a berth in the semifinal of the boys singles under-17
, of the Pakistan Open tennis championship played on Tuesday on the hard courts of Karachi Club.
On a rain-hit fourth day, the fifth seed won a hard fought out first set, but Ahmed who had to work hard in beating Ali Abdullah in the previous round, was back in contention winning the second set to draw abreast 1-1.
But this was to be Ahmed's last hurrah. Relying heavily on his cross court volleys and deft drop shots Usman took the final set 6-3 to come through a happy winner. Joining Usman in the semis was Umer Baber, who also had to work up a sweat, while disposing of Yasir Khan.
Completely at sea in the opening set, Umer crashed 1-6 and was trailing 2-4 in the second, before getting down to business to grab the next two sets 6-4, 6-4. Khurram Nazir was another entry into the last four downing Danish Ahmed 6-3, 6-4.
The two local youngsters Ali Asghar Bandeali and Ghulam Abbas Panju, resumed their interesting rivalry in the boys singles under-15 event. Ali using his hard hitting forehand and chipped backhands had the young bespectacled 13-year-old running all over the court before going down 6-2, 6-0, to make his entry into the quarterfinals.
Talha Dar from Hyderabad also moved into the last eight when he accounted for Mustafa Nanji 6-0, 7-5. Younger brother Talal also made his entry into the quarterfinals of the boys under-13 event, breezing past Adil Umer Kohari 6-1, 6-3.
But their 10-year-old sister Zainab failed to reach the next round going down 2-6, 2-6 to former ladies champion Ghazala Yasmeen. But little Zainab should deem herself proud that at this very young age she was able to take four points off a former national champion.
Ghulam Abbas Panju after losing his under-15 engagement went on court to meet Mobashir Razzak in an under-13 event and seemed quite happy with himself emerging a 6-1, 6-1 victor and reaching the quarterfinals stage. Hira Ashiq demolished Vilsan Das 6-0, 6-0 and Zohir Raza put out Daniyal Farooqui 6-1, 6-1.
Mustafa Jamali got the better of Ibrahim Khalid, but Zain Salim Mania had to work extremely hard before extinguishing the fighting spirit of Sunny Das 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Zain however made his exit from the under-15 event, going down in straight sets to Khurram Nazir.
The same could be said about Sunny Das, beaten in straight sets by the powerful youngster Nasir Mushtaq. In two matches that went the full distance, Qurban Ali beat Altamash 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and Syed Abbas Murtaza ended the keen challenge of Hasan Ahmed 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
In another close encounter, S.M. Naeem got the better of Mateen Arif 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. Also booking his place in the last eight was Jahangir Rasheed, who brushed aside Adnan Umer Mirza 6-0, 6-1.
In the men's singles, top seed Aqeel Khan and third seed Jalil Khan reached the semifinals. While Aqeel had little difficulty in removing Mohammad Shafiq, younger brother Jalil had to bring out his best in overcoming Shehzad Khan 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 7-5.
In a match full of thrills and spills, Shehzad leading 6-5, lost his service to forfeit the first set on a tiebreaker. Down 0-3 in the second, many thought that the match would be soon over and done with.
But Shehzad fought back magnificently and breaking Jalil's service thrice, won the set 7-5 and was now on even keel at 1-1. The final set saw both the players disputing the decisions of the chair umpire.
Jalil however won the set and the match and has booked a date with brother Aqeel on Wednesday afternoon at 3-30 p.m. At the time of going to the press, Wasif Cheema from Islamabad was leading Peshawar's Inam Gul 3-0 in the final set after both players won a set apiece.
In the last match of the day, second seed Noomi Qamar was pitted against Mohammad Khan. In two other ladies matches played later in the evening, Sara Mansoor beat Shabana 6-1, 6-1, while promising 15-year-old Annosha Aslam from Islamabad, took third seed Nausheen Ethisham into a tie breaker before losing the match 7-6 (7-4), 6-0.
