June 26, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1429

KARACHI, June 25: Top seed Omer Shahid on Wednesday cleared the first hurdle when he squeezed past his opponent Faisal Khan in straight sets to propel into the juniors’ under-17 pre quarter-finals of the fifth STA development series tennis tournament at PN Karsaz courts.

Omer took 40 minutes to register 6-4, 6-0 victory over Faisal as 14 out of total 16 first round matches in the under-17 category were decided on the opening day including four walkovers.

Second seed Talha Saeed was also through to the next round by getting the better of Saad Yousuf 6-0, 6-0.

Ahad Ahmed got a walkover against Sikandar Hayat, Rehmat Ali earned a walkover against Ali Muzaffar, Mustafa Tariq was awarded walkover against Naveed Mahfooz while Abdul Rehman received walkover against Sunny Williams.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Tennis Association has imposed a fine of Rs 500 and 20 suspension points to Sunny Williams for giving second walkover in the last six months.

Williams had done the same thing in a Sindh ranking tournament in February. Despite summer vacations in the education institutions, the organisers have received fewer entries for the ladies singles event.

According to the organising secretary, only four ladies have entered in the contest.

The men’s singles qualifying round matches begin on Thursday at 9.00am followed by main round. Top eight qualifiers will join the 24 seeded players in the main draw.

Results:

Juniors’ under-17 singles (first round):

Omer Shahid bt Faisal Khan 6-4, 6-0; Noorur-Rehman bt Abdul Samad 6-0, 6-0; Adil Kohari bt Mustafa Bengali 6-1, 3-2 (retd); Omer Osman bt M. Ali Khanani 6-1, 4-0 (retd); Bilal Shariff bt Nasrullah Qureshi 6-3, 6-1; Ahad Ahmed walkover Sikander Hayat; Shahbaz Khan bt Ahsan Saqib 6-2, 7-6; Rehmat Ali walkover Ali Muzaffar; Farhan Mustafa bt Asadullah Khan 6-3, 6-3; Qazi Zain bt Uzair Abdul Qadir 6-4, 4-1 (retd); Mohammad Ali Zubair bt Ahmed Waqas 6-4, 5-1 (retd); Mustafa Tariq walkover Naveed Mahfooz; Talha Saeed bt Saad Yousuf 6-0, 6-0; Abdul Rehman walkover Sunny Williams.