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| May 20, 2005 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1426 |
Shareef and Shahida in mixed doubles semifinal
KARACHI, May 19: Mohammad Shareef from Sahiwal and Shahida Farooq reached the Mixed doubles semifinals, after beating the Lahore combination of Salman Aslam and Nabiha Haq in two straight sets in the Greener Pakistan National Hard Court Tennis Championship played on Thursday at the Karachi Gymkhana.
Shareef using his powerful service for good measure and Shahida backing him up well with fine volleys, the winners took the first set 6-0.
But Salman and Nabiha refused to go down tamely.
In a hard fought second set the Lahore combination finally bowed out 6-4 with Shaheeda sending down a fine backhand volley down the line.
In another mixed doubles event, Gul Hamid (Quetta) and Alay Zehra got the better of Khurram A. Irfan and Beenish Junejo 6-0, 6-2.
It may be mentioned that the mixed doubles event has been revived after over two decades. The last mixed doubles national champions were Altaf Hussain and the late Salma Noorani.
Top seed Sana Bhagat reached the ladies singles final after she beat off the challenge of Nabiha Haq 6-0 4-1 (retired).
Disposing off the promising junior Quratulain 6-0, 6-3, Sana was forced the play her semifinal round later, as Nabiha had to leave for Lahore early on Friday.
Nabhia after playing a hectic match in the mixed doubles, immediately came on court to play Sana and the young lady from Lahore was certainly exhausted after she surrendered the second set 4-1.
Sana will now meet the hard hitting Seher Khwaja who got the better of Bushra Chawla 6-0, 6-0,scoring most of her points through double fisted forehand and backhand smashes.
On a very hot afternoon many players were forced to retire due to the intense heat.
In the pre-quarterfinals Hameed ul Haq was leading Nomi Qamer 6-4, 1-1, but was forced to retire. The same could be said about Khurram. After losing the first set to top seed Aqeel Khan, Khurram threw in the towel.
Aqeel’s younger brother Jalil was leading Mohammad Khalid 6-3, 2-1 before the latter retired due to exhaustion and Pakistan Davis Cup captain Rashid Malik met the same fate against Mehmood Khan 4-6, 2-1 and was forced to retire.
In other matches played, Inam Gul from the PAF beat Lahore’s talented youngster Omer Baber 6-4, 6-3.
Shezad Khan (Wapda) edged out Khalid Ali Nazer 6-3, 6-1. Second seed Asim Shafiq ended the pretensions of another Lahore youngster Munir Ashiq 6-2, 6-2 and M. Shafiq downed Wakeel from the PAF 6-4, 6-4.
Khurram Nazir and Tanveer Ashiq reached the semis in the Boys under-17 event. Khurram beat Ali Tariq 6-3, 6-3 and Tanveer Ashiq beat Nasir Mushtaq 6-3 6-3.
In the boys under-13, Sunny Williams reached the last four stage with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Shimran.
He was later joined by Omer Shahid a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Hyderabad’s Anas Yousufzai 6-4, 6-2, after the latter was leading 4-1 at one stage in the first set.
Also through to the semifinals was Zuhair Raza, who had little difficulty in disposing of Manoj Kumar 6-0, 6-2.
Following were the results:
Men’s singles (pre-quarterfinals) Nomi Qamer bt Hameedul Haq 4-6 1-1 (retired). Inam Gul (PAF) bt Omer Baber (Lahore) 6-4, 6-3. Shezad Khan (WAPDA) bt Khalid Ali Nazer 6-3, 6-1. Jalil Khan bt M. Khalid 6-3, 2-1 (retired). Asim Shafiq (Islamabad) bt Munir Ashiq (Lahore) 6-2, 6-2. Mahmood Khan bt Rashid Malik (Lahore) 6-4, 1-2 (retired). Aqeel Khan bt Khurram 6-0 (retired), Mohammad Shafiq bt Wakeel (PAF) 6-4, 6-4. Juniors Under-17 (quarterfinals) Khurram Nazir bt Ali Tariq 6-3, 6-3. Tanveer Ashiq bt Nasir Mushtaq 6-3, 6-0.
Boys under-13 (quarterfinals) Sunny Williams bt Shimran 6-3, 6-1. Omer Shahid bt Anas Yousufzai 6-4, 6-2. Zuhair Raza bt Manoj Kumar 6-0, 6-2.
Men’s doubles (quarterfinals) Nomi Qamer and Mohammad Shafiq bt Tanveer Munir and Fahad 6-3, 6-1.
Ladies singles (quarterfinals): Sana Bhagat bt Quratulain 6-0, 6-3.
Ladies singles (semifinals): Seher Khawja bt Bushra Chawla 6-0, 6-0. Sana Bhagat bt Nabiha Haq (Lahore) 6-0, 4-1 (retired).
Mixed doubles (quarterfinals): Gul Hamid and Alay Zehra bt Khurram A. Irfan and Beenish Junejo 6-0, 6-2. Mohammad Shareef and Shahida Farooq bt Salman Aslam and Nabia Haq 6-1, 6-4.
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