March 05, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 26, 1429

KARACHI, March 4: Asfand Rauf, who has recently arrived from the US after completing his studies, sent upcoming Zuhair Raza packing on Tuesday by handing him defeat in straight sets in the men’s singles pre quarter-finals of the second Sindh ranking tennis tournament at DHA Sunset Club.

Having rich experience of playing abroad, Rauf won 6-3, 6-3 to join the seeded players in the last eight.

Unseeded Robin Das was stretched to limits by Abdul Saeed before winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Others who qualified for the quarter-finals include Jalil Khan, Yasir Khan, Vinod Das, Nasir Mushtaq, Ahmed Iqbal and Asadullah.

Prodigy Khawaja Hamza opened his campaign by demolishing Mustafa Jamali 8-0 in pro-set while Imran Mooraj got the better of Babar Muzaffar by the same margin.

Results:

Men’s singles:

First round: Zubair Dadi bt Asim Khan 6-2, 6-2; Nasir Mushtaq bt Salman Ahmed 6-0, 6-0; Raza Azmatullah bt Faraz Ahsan – walkover.

Pre quarter-finals: Jalil Khan bt Naveed Anjum 6-1, 6-1; Ahmed Iqbal bt Rana Azmatullah 6-0, 6-0; Nasir Mushtaq bt Abdul Rehman – walkover; Asfand Rouf bt S. Zuhair Raza 6-3, 6-3; Asadullah bt Changez Hasan 6-1, 6-3; Vinod Das bt Fahim Ramzan 6-1, 6-1; Robin Das bt M. Abdul Saeed 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Yasir Khan bt Zubair Dadi 6-0, 6-0.

Ladies singles:

First round: Farheen Omer bt Maheen Dada 6-0, 6-0; Eman Malik bt Sara Ahmed 6-0, 6-1.

Boys’ U-13 singles pro-set:

First round: Khawaja Hamza bt Mustafa Bengali 8-0; Imran Mooraj bt Babar Muzaffar 8-0.

Wednesday’s fixtures:

Men’s singles quarter-finals 9.00am; ladies’ singles 10.00am; juniors’ doubles first round 12.00noon; boys’ U-11 first round 1.30pm; boys’ U-9 singles 2.00pm.