November 14, 2007	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 03, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 13: India dominated the first day against Pakistan in the Test series of tennis as Vivek Shokeen grasped Pakistan’s national champion Aqeel Khan in the first singles in straight set to take 1-0 lead at the Defence Club grass courts on Tuesday.

Lanky Shokeen, who had showed glimpses of an emerging player in the three Pakistan Futures ITF competitions held in Islamabad and Lahore, recently, battled for just one hour and 10 minutes to overcome Aqeel’s challenge with the score 6-4, 6-4.

Aisam-ul-Haq, will play Asutoush Singh in the reverse singles on Wednesday, followed by the doubles, which will be the last event of the first leg. The second leg will be played in Islamabad from Friday.

Aqeel competed well in the first set. But he could last till the 6th game when both were tied at 3-3 by holding their services. But Shokeen eventually broke Aqeel in the 7th game and then held his own to take 1-0 lead in the best-of-three-set singles.

Shokeen jolted Aqeel in the very beginning of the second set, breaking his service in the first game as the Indian was on the offensive, and his court coverage was excellent.

Shokeen returned Aqeel powerful serves perfectly to break the service in initial stages. Aqeel was to break Shokeen in the second game as once he was heading 40-30, but hit in the net twice to loss the opportunity. And then keeping his own, Shokeen moved forward in right way to complete the win.

Later Shokeen said Aqeel was a seasoned player and he only tried to put his best against him and that paid off.

“My service also helped me lot while both fore and back hands worked well” he said.

In all, Shokeen hit six aces, three in each set against Aqeel two aces in the first and one in the second one. Aqeel had two double faults in the first set and one in the second. Shokeen had only one double fault in the second set.

Pakistan will place its best pair of Aisam and Aqeel in the doubles against Shokeen and Asutoush. However, both the teams can make changes in the pair, 15 minutes before the start of the doubles.

Pakistan’s main hope is Aisam, who has the ability to beat Asutoush, the finalist of the third Pakistan Future against Adam Vejmelka of Czech Republic. The pair of Aisam and Aqeel also look a formidable, thus raising chances of a win for Pakistan.