KARACHI: Continuing his unbeaten run, Islamabad’s Nofil Kaleem swept aside his low-profile opponents to cruise into the semi-finals in two categories of the Essa Lab Open tennis championship at the Karachi Club here on Sunday.
Currently ranked sixth in under-18 national rankings, he inflicted a crushing 6-0, 6-2 victory over Taha Bandeali in the second round and whipped M. Raza Sawani 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-final to sneak into under-18 singles last four.
The organisers have quietly revised the under-18 draws including Ilham Khan at the expense of bottom seed Abdal Haider who has not shown up from upcountry. The latter was also seeded second in under-16.
In the under-16 singles, Nofil ruthlessly beat local player Shabbir Mohammad 6-0, 6-2 to become the first player to enter the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Jalaluddin Babar, Bilal Imran and Sahibzada Mohammad Ali were through to the under-14 singles semi-finals by winning their respective second round fixtures.
Results:
Under-18 singles:
Second round: Marib Malik bt Jalaluddin Babar (Mirpurkhas) 6-1 — Jalaluddin retired; Nofil Kaleem (Islamabad ) bt Taha Bandeali 6-0, 6-2; Ilham Khan bt Ebad Sarwar Hussain 6-3, 6-1.
Quarter-finals: Nofil Kaleem (Islamabad) bt M Raza Sawani 6-2, 6-3.
Under-16 singles:
First round: Mujahidullah bt Nadir (Hyderabad) — walkover.
Second round: Marib Malik bt Nazif Ahmed 6-3, 1-0 — Nazif retired.
.Quarter-finals: Nofil Kaleem bt Shabbir Mohammad 6-0, 6-2.
Under-14 singles:
Second round: Rayan Jawwad bt Jay Kumar 4-6, 6-2, 11-9; Rayan Imran bt Amin Shafi 6-1, 6-2.
Quarter-finals: Jalaluddin Babar bt Rayan Jawaad 5-7, 6-0, 10,2; Bilal Imran bt Shazil Malik 6-2, 6-2; Sahibzada Mohammad Ali bt Nouman Aftab 6-2, 6-2.
Under-12 singles:
Quarter-finals: Dada bt Waqas Bhutto 8-1; Rayyan Jawad bt Abdullah Khan 8-3; Amin Shafi bt Ghufran 8-1.
Men’s singles:
Second round: Farhan Altaf bt Kamran 6-0, 6-1.
Quarter-finals: Imran Shaukat (Multan) bt Syed Yawar Abbas 6-1, 6-1; Talha Zubair Surmawala bt Vinod Das 6-7 (5-7) 6-2, 10-4; M Manzar bt Abdullah Khan 6-2, 6-2.
Monday’s fixtures:
Matches start from 10:00am onwards.
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