LAHORE, Nov 24: Inam Gul stretched Munir Ashiq to three sets to move into the quarterfinals of the men’s national grass court tennis championship at the Bagh-i-Jinnah courts on Thursday.

Inam, who recovered to beat his formidable rival completed the win with the scoreline 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Inam and Munir held their serves till 4-all. Munir eventually broke Inam in the 9th game and then held his own to grab 1-0 lead. But it was thelast last laugh for Munir, as Inam roared back winning the remaining two sets, rather easily.

The winner was on the offensive in the second set dropping only one game to equalise the score 1-1. Maintaining his excellent forehand Inam raced to win the third set and the match as Munir made a number of unforced errors.

Former Davis Cupper and Pakistan coach, Rasheed Malik, 44, also qualified for the quarterfinals registering a stunning win over young and energetic Shahid Afridi in straight set 6-4, 6-2.

Malik’s placing near the net and powerful forehand shots helped him a lot to overcome a challenge.

Malik will meet another formidable challenge of third seed Jalil Khan in the last quarterfinals.

The other matches were two setters and the top seed Aqeel Khan earned another facile win to move ahead.

Aqeel proved too good against Jahanzeb Khan before winning 6-0, 6-1.

The second seed Nomi Qamar also powered his way to quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Khurram Nazir. The third seed Jalil, however, struggled to beat Humayun Pervaiz 6-3, 7-5.

The fourth seed Shahzad Khan also reserved a place when he overcame the challenge of Umar Babar 6-2, 6-4. Tanvir Ashiq and Fahad Ali marched into the quarterfinals of the Boys Under-17 event.

Earlier, 12 more matches in the first round of the same event were held with only Ali Umer Hayat Malik beating Muntizar in the three setters 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. In the ladies, category Anosha Aslam beat Saba Aziz 6-0,6-0.

Results:

Men’s singles: Aqeel Khan bt Jehanzeb Khan 6-0, 6-1, Tanvir Ashiq bt Mehmood Khan 6-4, 6-3, Wasif Cheema Shafique 6-3, 6-1, Shahzad Khan bt Umar Babar 6-2, 6-4, Jalil Khan bt Humayun Pervaiz 6-3, 7-5, Inam Gul bt Munir Ashiq 4-6, 6-1, 6-2,

Nomi Qamar bt Khurram Nazir 6-2, 6- 1; Rasheed Malik bt Shahid Afridi 6-4, 6-2.

Boys U-17 (1st round): Yousaf Anjum bt Feroze 6-0, 6-2, Heera Ashiq bt Kumail Hassan 6-2, 6-2, Usman Ijaz bt Syed Zubair Raza 6-0, 6-2, Fahad Ali bt Husnain Ayub 6-1, 6-1, Saif Ali bt Talal Khan 6-2, 6-3, Waqas Malik bt Sadan-ul-Haq 6-0, 6-1, Yasir Khan bt Abbas 6-2, 6-1, Abid Ali bt Jabran-ul-Haq 6-0, 6-2, Imran Shaukat bt Mubasher Afridi6-2,6-2, Ahmed Aslam bt Ali Sheikh 6-1, 6-1, Syed Abbas Raza bt Hassan Riaz 6-1, 6-2, Ali Umar Hayat Malik bt M Muntizar 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Pre-quarterfinals: Tanvir Ashiq bt Yousaf 6-2, 6-1, Fahad Ali bt Saif Ali 6-1, 6-3,

Ladies singles: Anosha Aslam bt Saba Aziz 6-0, 6-0.

Men’s doubles: Jalil Khan-Shahzad Khan bt Yasir Khan-Saif Noor 6-1, 7-6, Mehmood Khan-Inam Gul bt R.I Singh-Raju 6-4, 6-2, Khalid-Asif Feroze bt Inamullah-Jehangzeb 6-2, 6-3, Tanvir Ashiq-Munir Ashiq bt Inam-ul-Haq and Noman Aleem 7-6, 6-3, Nomi Qamar and Shafique bt Imran Shaukat-Usman Ijaz 6-3, 6-4.