July 25, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 28, 1427

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KARACHI, July 24: Three unseeded players pulled off minor upsets on way to men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the Arif Habib Tennis Championship at the Karachi Club on Monday.

Hasan Mahmood sent 14th seed Usman Ijaz of Quetta packing with a 7-5, 6-4 defeat while Hyderabad’s Samad Baloch toppled 15th seed Mubashir Afridi in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

Also, Sheryar Wali got the better of 16th seed Khalid Ali Nazar 7-5, 6-1 in a good contest.

The top four seeds faced no resistance in overcoming their opponents to book pre-quarterfinal berths.

Top seed Aqeel Khan accounted for Saad Baloch 6-2, 6-1. Islamabad’s second seed Asim Shafik scored a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Shaheen Ali while third seed Nomi Qamar recorded a 6-4, 6-3 win over Fahad Ali.

Fourth seed Jalil Khan also won his match comfortably, beating Shah Nawaz 6-1, 6-0.

The ladies singles which has drawn attention of tennis fraternity for lack of entries begins on Tuesday with eight women vying for top honours.

The absence of top ranking women players has already taken the sting out of the the event.

Defending champion Sara Mehboob has been top seeded in the draw.

The organisers have reduced the ladies singles prizemoney to half which means that now its winner will receive Rs15,000 and the runners up Rs6,000.

Results:

Men’s singles (second round):

Samad Baloch bt Aamir Ali 6-4, 6-4; Tanveer bt Hidayatullah 6-1, 6-1; Rafi Darbari bt Ali Abdullah 6-3, 0-6, 6-3; Nomi Qamar bt Fahad Ali 6-4, 6-3; Mehmood Khan bt Shabbir Gul 6-2, 6-2; Shahid Afridi bt Robin Das 6-2, 6-2; Sheryar Wali bt Khalid Ali Nazar 7-5, 6-1; Muneer Ashiq bt M. Manzar 6-3, 6-4; Jalil Khan bt Shah Nawaz 6-1, 6-0; Inam Gul bt Najeeb 6-1, 6-0; Hasan Mahmood bt Usman Ijaz 7-5, 6-4; Adnan Khan bt Vinod Dass 6-3, 6-2; Asim Shafiq bt Shaheen Ali 6-1, 6-1; Aqeel Khan bt Saad Baloch 6-2, 6-1.

Boys U-17 singles (first round): Yasir Khan bt Jahangir 6-0, 6-2; Hasan Ahmed bt Salman 6-1, 6-2; Ali Asgher Bande Ali bt Shaheen Mehmood 7-5, 6-2; S. Zuhair Raza bt Aamir Dervesh 6-1, 6-0; Syed Abbas bt Imran 6-2, 7-5; Nasir Khan bt Ahsan Bajwa 7-5, 7-5; Sheryar Niazi bt Mateen Arif 6-2, 7-5; Qurban Ali w/o Daniyal Alvi; Ahmed Aslam bt Mustafa Zaidi 6-1, 6-1.

Tuesday’s fixtures:

Boys U-13 singles (9.00 am) ; men’s singles 11.00 am; ladies singles, men’s doubles (3.00 pm) boys U-17 doubles (5.00 pm) and seniors doubles (6.30 pm).