KARACHI, Dec 30: Internationals Louiza Irshad and Sanam Arzoo of Wapda claimed the women’s doubles title to earn a double crown on the penultimate day of the 43rd National table tennis championship at the Islamia Club on Friday.
The duo, after guiding their team to triumph in the women’s team event, performed splendidly and got the better of compatriots Asia-Ayesha in five sets. The scores were 11-6, 10-12, 11-4, 6-11, 11-7.
This is the third title won by Wapda after they had lifted the men’s and women’s team events for the first time.
Habib Bank also picked up two titles of men’s doubles and mixed doubles. The pair of Asim-Yasir, after losing the first two sets, recovered to beat Wapda’s Saleem-Faisal in a five-set encounter. The score being 7-11, 8-11, 13-11, 12-10, 11-5.
Yasir also went on to annex doubles crown as partnering with Ghalia Khurshid the pair accounted for Saleem-Sanam 11-9, 11-7, 11-4 to lift the mixed doubles crown. Ghalia has already reached the women’s singles final.
Ali Faisal and Saleem Abbas, both of Wapda, set a date to meet each other in the men’s singles final after registering convincing victories over their opponents.
While Ali got the better of Sindh’s Khawaja Kashif 13-11, 11-9, 11-7, 3-11, 12-10 Abbas brushed aside Ahmed Hussain 11-3, 11-8, 11-1, 11-4.
Ahmed Hussain secured the bronze defeating Khawaja Kashif in the play-off 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-8.
The organisers flouted the ITTF rules by allowing the men’s singles play-off to be contested for best of seven sets.
Only the other day, they stopped the women’s singles play-off after five sets on the pretext to follow ITTF rules.
Results:
Men’s singles (quarterfinals): Ali Faisal bt Jahangir Khan 11-6, 11-9, 11-8, 11-2; Saleem Abbas bt Asim Aziz 11-2, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4; Khawaja Kashif bt Owais 11-5, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5; Ahmed Hussain bt Awais Mukhtar 11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 12-10, 11-8.
Men’s singles (semifinals): Ali Faisal bt Khawaja Kashif 13-11, 11-9, 11-7, 3-11, 12-10; Saleem Abbas bt Ahmed Hussain 11-3, 11-8, 11-1, 1-4.
Play-off for 3rd position: Ahmed Hussain bt Khawaja Kashif 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-8.