August 20, 2007	Monday	Sha’aban 6, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 19: Billed as a stepping stone for would-be-future stars, the main round of the KC Community Foundation ITF juniors’ world ranking tennis tournament (first leg) gets into action at Karachi Club courts on Monday promising to produce quality games.

The boys’ singles has a draw of 32 – 22 direct acceptance, four qualifiers, four wildcards and two lucky losers. The draws were taken out by ITF White Badge referee Shezad Alvi at the Karachi Club on Sunday in the presence of the participants.

Pakistan’s Heera Ashiq and Sadanul Haq are among four who made it to the main round through qualifiers. The other two players are Mandeep Yadev and C. Shaolin (both from India).

The four home players who got a wildcard are Waqas Malik, Ahmed Aslam, Zohair Raza and Abbas Raza while the two lucky losers are Hasan Ahmed and Abid Ali.

Shiva Sangwan of India has been top seeded in the boys’ singles. He is followed by Chandril Sood, also from India, Tanveer Ashiq (Pakistan) and Thangarajah (Thailand). Pavel Liska of Czech Republic, who was top seeded, pulled out of the contest and the following four were promoted.

Earlier, the organisers said eight players will move into the main round.

As for the girls, Inayat Khosla from India heads the seedings. Other three seeded players are Soniya Dayal (India), Sarah Mehboob (Pakistan) and Dipti Shrivaastava (India).

“Soniya has not yet signed in. She is expected to arrive here on Monday according to her family,” an official confided to Dawn.

The first leg of the tournament concludes on Aug 26.

Results:

Second qualifying round: Mandeep Yadav bt Mustafa Zaidi 6-0, 6-2; M. Abid bt Ghulam Abbas 7-5, 6-1; Sadanul Haq bt Rohit Chohdre 6-2, 6-0; Faizan Khurram bt Ali Asghar Bandeali 5-7, 7-6, 6-4; Hasan Ahmed bt Ali Zubair 6-2, 6-3; C. Shaolin bt Talha Saeed 6-0, 6-1; Heera Ashiq bt Abdul Rehman 6-1, 6-1; M. Fahim w/o Inderjot Singh.

Third qualifying round: Mandeep Yadev bt M. Abid 6-4, 6-0; Sadanul Haq bt Faizan Khurram 7-6, 6-2; C. Shaolin bt Ahmed Hasan 6-0, 6-2; Heera Ashiq bt M. Fahim 6-0, 6-1.

Fixtures for Monday:

Boys’ singles first round (from 10:00am): Kaza Sharmma (Ind) v Chandril Sood (Ind); Omer Babar (Pak) v Nasir Mushtaq (Pak); Yasir Khan (Pak) v Nehal Kapoor (Ind); Syed Abbas Raza (Pak) v M. Abid Ali (Pak); Heera Ashiq (Pak) v Prithiv Sivasubramaniam (Ind); Syed Zohair Raza (Pak) v Sai Kartik (Ind); Gugan Verma (Ind) v Dussadee Darakamas (Thai); Mandeep Yadav (Ind) v Wasin Wijaya (Thai); Ahmed Aslam (Pak) v Thangarajah (Sri Lanka); Chandam Shaolin (Ind) v Lakshit Sood (Ind); Khurram Nazir (Pak) v Jugal Marfatia (Ind); Shiva Sangwan (Ind) v Ahmed Hassan (Pak); Tanveer Ashiq (Pak) v Nuttorn Tanchainant (Thai); Sadanul Haq (Pak) v Dody Barani (Ind); Sumeet Shinde (Ind) v Waqas Malik (Pak); Gurmohit Janjua (Ind) v Sameer Paranjape (Ind).

Girls’ singles (from 3:00pm):

First round: Asha Mohan (Ind) v Sindhura Polavarapu (Ind).

Second round: Inayat Khosla (Ind) v Susita Das (Ind); Ushna Sohail (Pak) v Richa Valecha (Ind); Dipti Shrivastava (Ind) v Mehak Khokhar (Pak); Isha Razdan (Ind) v Augustine Menito Carol (Esp).