LAHORE, Dec 23: Top seed Aqeel Khan and second seed Asim Shafik won their respective semi-finals in contrasting style to lock horns in the I.C Open National ranking tennis championship final on Sunday.

Aqeel, as usual remained unbeaten in the domestic circuit, ousting lanky Shahzad Khan from Faisalabad in one-sided pre-final 6-1, 7-5 at the Bagh-i-Jinnah courts on Saturday.

Aqeel seemed in a hurry as talented Shahzad failed to match his speed and even had no reply to the sizzling serves to lose the first set. Aqeel, however, faced good opposition from Shahzad in the second set. In fact Aqeel escaped a tie-breaker by breaking Shahzad in the 11th game to win.

Asim, however, was stretched to full distance by another Davis Cupper, Jalil Khan before winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Asim won the first set, breaking Jalil in the first service. But Jalil retaliated in the same way to equalise the score, winning the second set, leaving the result on the third one. Asim, however, proved too good in the crucial third set wining it rather easily to book a place in the final to fight Aqeel for a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

In the ladies's singles, Natasha Afridi and Sarah Mehboob set the date for the final.

Upcoming Natasha was extended to a third set to beat Nousheen Ihtesham, the mother of Pakistan top tennis player Aisamul-ul-Haq, with the score being 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Natasha had easy sailing in the first set but the experienced Nousheen caught up with her winning the second by identical margin. However, it seemed Nousheen had lost stamina in the second set as the third was a cakewalk for Natasha as she dropped only one game to romp home.

Sarah made short work of Sara Mansoor 6-4, 6-4 to win the second pre-final.

Asim Shafik and Shahzad Khan had earlier won the men's doubles final defeating the pair of brother Aqeel and Jalil 6-1, 6-2.

Two former Davis Cupper Rashid Malik and Hameed-ul-Haq won the veteran's doubles final edging out Mohammad Khalid and Asif Feroze in a three setter 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

Results:

Men's singles (semi-finals): Aqeel Khan bt Shahzad Khan 6-1, 7-5; Asim Shafik bt Jalil Khan 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Ladies' singles (semi-finals): Natasha Afridi bt Nousheen Ihtesham 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; Sarah Mehboob bt Sara Mansoor 6-4, 6-4.

Men's doubles final: Asim Shafik-Shahzad Khan bt Aqeel Khan-Jalil Khan 6-1, 6-2.

Boys U-17 (semi-finals): Ahmed Aslam bt Umar Babar 6-3, 7-5; Tanveer Ashiq bt Abid Ali 6-1, 6-1.

Girls U-17 (semi-finals): Sara Mehboob bt Natasha Afridi 6-4, 6-2; Saba Aziz bt Ushna Sohail 6-0, 6-2.

Boys U-13 (semi-final): Mohammad Abid bt Faizan Khurram 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Zuhair Raza bt Adil Kohari 6-3, 6-2.

Veteran's doubles final: Rashid Malik-Hameed-ul-Haq bt Asif Feroze-Khalid 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

Boys U-15 (semi-finals): Shah Bukhari bt Heera Ashiq 6-2, 6-2; Waqas Malik bt M Abid 6-2, 6-2.