April 28, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1427

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LAHORE, April 27: Top seed Wajid Ali, Zeeshan Omer, Rizwan Azam and Zafar Tasneem reached the last four in men's singles of the All-Pakistan badminton ranking tournament in Faisalabad on Thursday.

National champion Wajid had to work hard to eliminate Shabbar Hussain in three sets 21-16, 19-21, 21-17.

The other quarterfinals were one sided affairs.

Zeeshan, Pakistan number 2 beat upcoming Hashir Bashir 21-16, 21-17.

Zafar defeated former national champion Aamer Islam 21-19, 21-17.

Rizwan got a walkover against Ahsan Qamar, who could not turn up due to injury.

In the women singles, national champion Asma Butt carved out a victory against Sara Mohmand 21-16, 21-15.

Farzana Ali stretched to three sets by a local player Shehnaz Khan 21-19, 17-21, 21-18.

Uzma Butt outplayed upcoming Sara Khan in straight sets 21-15, 21-17.

Aiysha Akram, a former national champion, defeated Saima Manzoor 21-18, 21-17.

In the women doubles semifinals, Asma and Uzma Butt defeated Sara Mohmand and Saima 21-17, 21-15 to enter the finals.

In the second semifinals Aiysha and Sara Khan edged past Farzana and Shehnaz 21-18, 21-17.

Attique and Rizwan Azam reached the semifinals of the men's doubles, ousting Danish and Kashif in a hard fought three sets, 21-18, 17-21, 21-19.

Zeeshan and Zafar overpowered Hashir and Ijaz in straight sets 21-15, 21-16 and Aamer and Shabbar defeated Faisal and Atif 21-19, 21-18 to make it to the last four stage.