July 26, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1429

KARACHI, July 25: The winning run of Pakistan’s Nasir Mushtaq came to a halt when he went down to Syria’s Bronou Abdel Nour in an agonising three-set quarter-final in the first leg of the ITF world ranking juniors’ tennis tournament in Amman, Jordan, on Friday.

According to information made available here, the Syrian was home 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 in some two hours and 50 minutes.

After winning the opener 7-6 in a tie-breaker, Nasir was 5-4 up in the second when the match slipped from his hands. Serving at 40-30 he tried to hit a winner to wrap up the match which hit the net. From then onwards he failed to maintain his rhythm and lost the set 5-7 to be tied one-all in the match. He lost the third set 4-6 to make exit.

Nour, who is the Syrian national junior champion, chalked up another 6-3, 6-4 victory over Tugay Koylu of Turkey to sail into the final. Meanwhile, fellow countrywoman Sara Mehboob also completed her engagements when she lost to Indian Raina Ankita in quarter-finals.

The second leg of the tournament starts from Monday. Players from 15 countries including Pakistan, India, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Thailand and Turkey are to vie for the honours. Nasir has been seeded third for the second leg.