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| May 22, 2005 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1426 |
Seher is crowned ladies champion
KARACHI, May 21: Second seed Seher Khawja was crowned the ladies champion at the Pakistan National hard court tennis championship when she sent top seed Sana Bhagat packing in two straight sets at the Karachi Gymkhana on Saturday evening. Seher who has never beaten Sana before, shocked the top seed by picking up the first set 6-0 with splendid serves and fine volleys.
Terribly taken aback, Sana fought back in the second and was leading 5-4, when Seher with some fine aces and backhand shots levelled the scores 5-5 and then went on to win, with the tennis fans looking on in shocked silence.
Sixteen-year-old Quratulain, a young lady from the Rashid Malik Academy from Lahore won the girls singles title overcoming 13-year-old Mahak Tanveer 6-0, 6-0. But it was not such a one-sided affair as the scores indicate.
Mahak fought back and was unlucky to lose some points after holding her powerful opponent at deuce several times.
Farha Waseem and Shahid Khan stormed into the mixed doubles final with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over M. Shafiq and Shahida Farooq. They will now take on Jalil Khan and Seher Khawja in the final on Sunday.
Top seed Aqeel Khan booked his berth in the final by breezing past third seed Nomi Qamer 6-2 6-1, and will meet second seed Asim Shafiq in the final.
Asim had to work hard in getting the better of his doubles partner Shehzad Khan 6-2, 7-5.
Later in the evening the Khan brothers Aqeel and Jalil won the men’s doubles after beating second seeds Asim Shafiq and Shehzad Khan in three gruelling sets 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.
Winning the first set Aqeel and Jalil found thier opponents from Islamabad hard nuts to crack, losing the next set in a tie-breaker. The top seeds were then trailing 2-4, but Asim playing so well till then let them off the hook with three costly errors.
He twice volleyed into the net and then instead of going ahead 5-2, enabled Aqeel and Jalil to close the gap 3-4 when another volley hit the net and bounced back into his own court.
From then on it was Aqeel and Jalil all the way as they grabbed the final set 7-5.
Following were the results:
Men’s singles (semifinals) Aqeel Khan bt Nomi Qamer 6-2, 6-1. Asim Shafiq bt Shehzad Khan 6-2, 7-5.
Ladies singles (final) Seher Khwaja bt Sana Bhagat 6-0, 7-5. Girls singles Quratualain (Lahore) bt Mahak Tanveer 6-0, 6-0. Men’s doubles (final) Aqeel Khan and Jalil Khan bt Asim shafiq and Shehzad Khan 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.
Mixed Doubles (semifinals) Farha Waseem and Shahid Khan bt M. Shafiq and Shahida Farooq 6-2, 6-2.
The following finals will be played on Sunday. At 4-30 p.m.
Junior singles final Jalil Khan v/s Tanveer Ashiq Mixed doubles (final) Farha Waseem and Shahid Khan v/s Jalil Khan and Seher Khawja. Men’s singles (final) Aqeel Khan v/s Asim Shafiq.
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