August 19, 2007	Sunday	Sha’aban 5, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 18: Islamabad’s Jibranul Haq was knocked out while his cousin Saadanul Haq progressed in three-set agonising contests as two-day qualifying round of ITF juniors U-18 tennis tournament commenced at the Karachi Club on Saturday.

Local boy Ahmed Hassan overcame a defiant Jibran 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 while Saadan sent Samir Iftikhar packing 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in similar fashion.

Twelve qualifying round matches were decided on the opening day of qualifiers. The winners join four seeded Indian players — Mandeep Yadav, Inderjot Sindh, Rohit Choudhary and Shaolin Chandam — who got a bye.

Eight matches are on card for Sunday, the final day of qualifying round, and the winners will advance to the main round.

Meanwhile, a group of 16 Indian players including girls arrived from Delhi on Saturday while their two compatriots — Rohit and Shaolin — reached here from Lahore. Inayat Khosla, the top seed Indian girl, is due to reach on Sunday.

Apart from 19 Indians, other foreigners who have reached here include three from Thailand, and one each from Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Results: (Qualifying round):

Mustafa Zaidi bt Malik Abdul Rehman (Lhr) 7-6,6-1; Ghulam Abbas Panju bt Murtaza Hassan 6-1,6-0; M. Abid Ali (Isb) bt Asadullah 6-2,6-0; Sadanul Haq (Isb) bt Samir Iftikhar (Lhr) 4-6,6-4,6-1; Ali Asghar Bandeali bt Salman Ahmed 6-3,6-1; Faizan Khurram (Lhr) bt Hussain Aziz 7-5, 6-0; Ahmed Hassan bt Jibranul Haq (Isb) 7-5,2-6,7-5; Ali Zubair bt M. Ghufran Bajwa 6-1, 6-2; Talha Saeed bt M. Zubaid Gul (Hyd) 6-2,6-4; Heera Ashiq (Lhr) bt Anas Khan (Hyd) 6-0, 6-1; Abdul Rehman bt Murtaza Haider 6-3, 6-2; Fahim Ramzan bt Asif Bachani (Hyd) 6-3, 7-5.

Sunday’s fixtures: 10.00am.

Talha Saeed v Shaolin Chandam (Ind); Heera Ashiq v Abdul Nasir; Fahim Ramzan v Inderjot Sindh (Ind); Ahmed Hasan v Zubair Ali; Ghulam Abbas Panju v M. Abid Ali; Rohit Choudhry (Ind) v Saadanul Haq; Mandeep Yadav (Ind) v Mustafa Zaidi; Ali Asghar Bandeali v Faizan Khurram.