July 27, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 30, 1427

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KARACHI, July 26: Twin Baloch brothers, Saad and Samad toppled 4th seed pair of Adnan Khan-Khalid Ali Nazar in straight sets to cruise into the men’s doubles semifinals of the Arif Habib Tennis Championship at the Karachi Club on Wednesday.

The two brothers who are natives of Hyderabad, arrived just before their match and cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win. They demonstrated good understanding with no signs of jet-leg in their game.

Joining them in the pre-finals were another pair of siblings, Aqeel Khan and Jalil Khan followed by second seeded Asim Shafik-Nomi Qamar and third seed Inam Gul-Mehmood Khan who also won in straight sets.

Lahore’s promising teenager Hira Aashiq was at his best as he pulled off an upset by edging out third seed Syed Abbas Raza 6-3, 6-4 to advance into Juniors U-17 singles semifinals.

Besides Hira, top seed Yasir Khan, Shaheryar Wali and Abid Ali also fought their way into the last four without getting much resistance.

Sara Mahboob, the top seed, and Seher Khwaja who is the former national hard court champion chalked up impressive victories.

The former got the better of Sara Ahmad 6-1, 6-0, while the latter inflicted 6-1, 6-1 defeat on Amal Faisal to make it to the ladies singles semis. Saba Aziz had already reached the last four.

Results:

Boys U-17 singles (quarterfinals): Yasir Khan bt S. Zuhair Raza 6-1, 6-1; Hira Aashiq bt S. Abbas Raza 6-3, 6-4; Shaheryar Wali bt Ahmad Aslam 6-3, 6-1; Abid Ali bt Ejaz Usman 6-3, 6-3.

Boys U-13 singles (second round): S. Zuhair Raza w/o Aamir Millwala; Zubaid Gul bt Fahad Alvi 6-0, 6-1; Abdul Rehman bt Sulman Shamsi 7-5, 6-2; Tayyab Imran bt Mohesh Bhatia 7-5, 4-6, 7-5; Azhar Qureshi bt Sohail Akber 6-0, 6-0; Shamoon bt Syed Ali Imran 7-5, 7-6 (6); Mustafa Zaidi bt Arif Khan 6-0, 6-1; Shahrukh Asim w/o Qamar Hyder.

Juniors U-17 doubles (first round): Yasir Khan-Abid Ali bt Abbas Raza-Abdul Rehman 6-1, 6-0; Asadullah Aslam-Mohammad Sangani bt Talha Masood-Said Noor 7-5, 6-2; Ali Hasan-Hira Aashiq bt Sheryar Niazi-Imran Shaukat 6-2, 6-3; Salman Ahmad-Abdul Rehman bt Azhar Qureshi-Salman Kamani 6-1, 6-1; Shaheen Mehmood-Hidayatullah w/o Hasan Ahmad-S. M. Naeem; Ahmad Aslam-Fahad Ali bt Asif Bachani-Qurban Ali 6-4, 6-3; Jahangir Rasheed-Mateen Arif bt Adnan Tahir-Fahad Alvi 6-1, 6-1; Usman Ejaz-Nasir Mushtaq bt Syed Ali Imran-Qadir Naeem 6-2, 6-1. (Quarterfinals): Yasir Khan-Abid Ali bt Asadullah Aslam-Mohammad Sangani 6-2, 6-1; Ali Hasan-Hira Aashiq bt Salman Ahmad-Abdul Rehman 6-2, 6-2; Ahmad Aslam-Fahad Ali bt Shaheen Mehmood-Hidayatullah 6-2, 7-6 (5); Nasir Mushtaq-Usman Ejaz bt Jahangir Rasheed-Mateen Arif 6-1, 6-0.

Men’s doubles (quarterfinals): Aqeel Khan-Jalil Khan bt Shabbir Gul-Rafi Darbari 6-3, 6-2; Inam Gul-Mehmood Khan bt Danish Ahmad-S. Qutub 6-1, 6-4; Asim Shafik-Nomi Qamar bt Aamir Dervesh- Ammad Nadeem 6-0, 6-0; Saad Baloch-Samad Baloch bt Adnan Khan-Khalid Ali Nazar 6-3, 6-3.

Ladies singles (first round): Sara Mahboob bt Sara Ahmad 6-1, 6-0; Seher Khwaja bt Amal Faisal 6-1, 6-1.

Thursday’s fixtures:

Boys U-13 singles (quarterfinals) 9.00am; men’s singles (quarterfinals), juniors U-17 singles (semifinals) 10.00am; juniors doubles (semifinals) 12.00pm; men’s doubles (semifinals) 4.00pm; ladies singles 6.00pm; seniors doubles 6.30pm.