19 December 2004	Sunday	06 Ziqa'ad 1425

KARACHI, Dec 18: England-based fourteen-year-old Aamna Hameed won her first trophy on Pakistani soil, when she sent the top seed Nida Rahim crashing 6-3, 6-1 , in the ladies singles final of the Salma Noorani Karachi tennis championship played at the Karachi Club on Saturday.

Last year Aamna, in her first appearance in Pakistan, lost in the final to Nida's older sister Marium, then the defending champion.

After taking the first set 6-3, Aamna never looked back winning the next set and match 6-1.

In the juniors singles under-17, second seed Tanveer Ashiq upset top seed Omer Baber in three gruelling sets.

Tanveer excelling in fine backhand smashes down the line caught his opponent napping time and again winning the opening set 6-2.

But Omer cheered on by his band of supporters came back strongly forcing his opponent into numerous errors to level the set scores by grabbing the second 6-3.

Terribly disappointed with his erratic play, Tanveer got his act together and took a winning 3-1 lead in the final set. Omer fought back magnificently to level the game scores 3-3, but sadly this was to be his last hurrah.

Tanveer pulled away to win the set and match 6-3 and was lustily cheered off the court.

Heera Ashiq, Tanveer's younger brother and top seed in the boys under-13 event, was also engaged in a tough battle with second seed Ghulam Abbas Panju in a game that went the full distance.

Heera playing attacking tennis swept Ghulam off his feet with some spectacular shots winning the opening set 6-1. Ghulamgot into his strides and won the second set 6-3, to level scores 1-1. But Heera once again got himself motivated and with Ghulam running into a stream of errors, went on to win the match 6-2.

Top seeds Aqeel Khan and Jalil Khan won the men's doubles event by ousting second seeds Nomi Qamar and Mohammad Shafiq 6-3, 6-4.

Matching each other point for point, both pairs were tied at 3-3. But with Nomi and Shafiq losing their service twice, the Khan brothers took the first set 6-3. Aqeel and Jalil took a quick 2-0 lead, which soon turned to 3-1 to their advantage in the second set.

However, Nomi and Shafiq were not giving up in a hurry. They not only equalised the scores 3-3, but even forged ahead 4-3, breaking Aqeel and Jalil's service for the second consecutive time.

With service in hand Jalil helped to equalise the scores 4-4, but Nomi and Shafiq had another setback allowing their opponents to move ahead 5-4, with their service broken once again.

Serving for the match, Aqeel made no mistake enabling him and younger brother Jalil to pick up the spoils in the men's doubles event.

Results:

Ladies singles (final): Aamna Hameed bt Nida Rahim 6-3, 6-1.

Boys singles junior under-17 (final): Tanveer Ashiq bt Omer Baber 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Boys singles under-13 (final): Heera Ashiq bt Ghulam Abbas Panju 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Men's doubles (final):Aqeel Khan/Jalil Khan bt Nomi Qamar/Mohammad Shafiq 6-3, 6-4.

Fixture for Sunday.

At 3-30pm. Men's singles (final).

Aqeel Khan v/s Jalil Khan.