04 September 2004	Saturday	18 Rajab 1425

KARACHI, Sept 3: Top seed Aqeel Khan grabbed a double crown in the ITF Satellite tennis circuit masters tournament when he outplayed fifth seeded Italian Tommaso Sanna in straight sets in the final played on Friday at the Karachi Gymkhana.

Ageel teaming up with India's Vijay Kannan a day earlier, bagged the doubles title, beating India's Jaco Mathew and Japan's Atsufumi Yoshikawa after a keen tussle 7-6, 6-4.

On a fairly hot and humid afternoon, the two players were on level terms 2-2. Cashing on his serve and then breaking Sanna's service, Aqeel moved ahead 4-2. With some fine backhand volleys the Pakistan No.1 increased his lead to 5-2 only to see Sanna reduce the deficit at 3-5.Aqeel then wrapped up the first set 6-3, with three aces.

Sanna serving for the second set relied heavily on his cross court smashes as he opened his account 1-0. Aqeel with fine passing shots was soon alongside 1-1. Then breaking Sanna's service once again and using his powerful service for good measure, Aqeel raced ahead 3-1.

Aware that he was sinking fast, Sanna with a last desperate effort won the next game to move closer 2-3. But the Italian's joy was short lived. With the partisan crowd urging him on, Aqeel sent down a few more aces which had his hapless opponent stranded on the court and in 2-4 arrears.

Throwing caution to the wind, Sanna with forceful double fisted drives closed the gap once more 4-3. Aqeel sensing victory awaiting him around the corner began a relentless attack and was only a game away from victory, in front 5-3.

Sanna however still has some fight left in him. Forcing Aqeel into numerous errors with the top seed volleying into the net, he still had a flicker of hope of bagging the set trailing 4-5. But serving for the match and persevering with his powerful smashes, Aqeel was leading 40-30. The top seed then put the icing on the cake, sending down another emerging a happy 6-3, 6-4 winner, his third ITF success.

Aqeel won the first leg in Islamabad but lost the second leg in Lahore. He made up for that defeat by winning the third leg also played in Lahore. His opponent in all three previous finals was Japan's Toshiaki Sakai, who made his exit in the semi-finals in Karachi on Thursday, going down to Tommaso Sanna in three gruelling sets.

The winner bagged a purse of US$800 and the runner-up earned a US$600. Aqeel will now proceed to India to play in two international ranking tournaments. These future tournament will enable the players gather international ranking points.

The two Future tournaments in which Aqeel is featuring, will be held in Hyderabad (Daccan) and New Delhi. For the very first time in the history of Pakistan tennis that line girls were used in a tournament. The nine ladies from the Sir Syed Government Girls College who were supervised by the Director Physical Education Miss Gulrukh gave an excellent account of themselves.