KARACHI, Sept 2: Pakistan's No.1 and top seed Aqeel Khan was heading for a double crown in the ITF Satellite tennis circuit masters tournament
, when he strolled into the men's singles final without lifting his racquet in his semifinal against Mirko Pehar (USA) and later in the afternoon teaming up with India's Vijay Kannan, lifted the doubles crown, on the hard courts of the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.
In the men's singles semifinal Aqeel was given a walkover by the American who failed to recover from the leg injury he received a couple of days ago while partnering the Japanese No.2 Toshiaki Sakai in the doubles event.
Meeting Aqeel in the final on Friday afternoon will be the Italian Tommaso Sanna, who surprised No.2 seed Toshiaki Sakai in three gruelling sets. With both players on the attack they matched each under point for point and were tied 6-6 in the opening set which was forced in a tiebreak which after some anxious moments, was gleefully won by the Italian 7-6 (7-4).
Badly shaken by the outcome of the first set, Sakai fighting hard to reach his fourth straight final, broke the Italian's service at 3-3, then taking advantage of his deft volleys over the net, caught the Italian playing from the baseline napping several times, not to mention the powerful smashes which helped him surge ahead 5-3.
The intense heat took its toll on both players, but it was Sakai who prevailed, winning the second set 6-3 when Sanna drove the ball into the net. Sanna began the final set on a fine note quickly taking a 2-0 lead and with service in hand was in front 30-0. The Italian growing in confidence seemed on course to further increase the lead 3-0. But that was not to be.
Fighting back courageously, Sakai with piercing forehand drives received a loud round of applause from the spectators for not only clawing is way back closer 1-2, but drawing abreast 2-2 with a swift backhand volley. Unruffled with the proceedings the Italian was ahead once again 3-2, only to see the determined Japanese breathing down his neck at 3-3.
Sanna broke Sakai's serve again to move in front 4-3, but his joy was short lived when Sakai returned the complement 4-4. With service back in hand, the Italian after trailing 0-30, won the game 5-4.
Serving to stay into contention Sakai committed two unforced errors, but gave his band of supporters a glimmer of hope levelling the game score 30-30. But two more costly errors, a cross court smash which flew over the line and a backhand volley into the net, cost Sakai the match with Sanna lifting his fist up in the air in triumph, grabbing the final set 6-4. This surprise defeat was indeed a great setback for the Japanese left-hander.
After losing the first leg of the tournament to Aqeel in Islamabad, he won the second leg in Lahore getting the better of Aqeel, before the Pakistan champion won the third leg, beating Sakai once again in Lahore.
Coming down to the city, the young Japanese came in with a big reputation. But he perished in the semifinal in the masters event. To add insult to injury, Sakai was forced to make his exit from the men's doubles semifinal, when his partner Mirko Pehar received a foot injury.
Sakai and Pehar were top seeded in the doubles event. In the men's doubles final played later in the afternoon, the second seeds Aqeel and Vijay Kannan were given a tough time by their opponents Jaco Mathew (India) and Atsufumi Yoshikawa (Japan) before emerging victorious 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
Both pairs matched each other stroke for stroke, which resulted in the first set being forced into the tiebreaker with Aqeel and Vijay finally coming through 7-5. The second set was a repeat of the first, until Yoshikawa's lost his service at 4-4. Aqeel put the final nail in the coffin of his fighting opponents, cashing in with his powerful service to win the second set 6-4.
FRIDAY SCHEDULE: Mens singles final: Tommaso Sanna (Italy) v Aqeel Khan (Pakistan) Court No.2 3.30pm.
APP ADDS: Pakistan's top-ranked tennis player Aqeel Khan will compete in two international ranking tournaments in India next week, it was officially learnt on Thursday.
Aqeel will participate in these "Future" tournaments which enable the players to gather international ranking points. The future tournaments, featuring Aqeel, will be played at Hyderabad and New Delhi.
Aqeel had also done well when he competed in international ranking tournaments in India in July and has also been winning the singles events of the ongoing four-leg international tennis tournaments in Pakistan.
He will return home on Sept 18 and will join the training camp for the Davis Cup tie against New Zealand. The Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Zone, Group-1, play-off tie against New Zealand will be held at Islamabad Club clay courts from Sept 24 to 26.
Besides Aqeel, the others expected to be in the training camp for the New Zealand tie will be Aisamul Haq, the best-known abroad amongst the current Pakistani tennis players, Jalil Khan, Asim Shafik, Shahzad Khan and Wasif Cheema However, the duo of Aqeel Khan-Aisamul Haq will remain the mainstay of Pakiistan's Davis Cup campaign against New Zealand.
In fact, it was Aqeel who came to Pakistan's rescue in the crucial home ties against China and South Korea in recent years. Aqeel won the make-or-break last reverse singles matches of the tie after Aisam had developed cramps and thus pulled out each time in the middle of his reverse singles matches.
