ISLAMABAD: Unseeded Aman Atiq caused a major upset in the Junior Ranking Tennis Tournament of the PTF Development Series on Friday, when he overpowered top seed Nofil Kaleem in the U-18 semi-final here at the PTF Complex.

Aman defeated Nofil 7-6, 6-3. A close battle was witnessed in the first set as both players displayed quality tennis, which Aman eventually won. In the next set, Aman had more control as he kept Nofil under pressure and comfortably took the set and the match.

Commenting on Aman’s victory, PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani said: “No doubt, Aman is unseeded in this tournament, but he is very talented. His ranking is low because he doesn’t regularly participate in tournaments, otherwise, on his day he can defeat anyone.”

In the other U-18 semi-final, experienced second seed Mohammad Muzammil outclassed unseeded Hamza Bin Asif 6-1, 6-2.

It is relevant to recall here that Muzammil, Raza Swani and Aman in March this year showed brilliant performance in the Asian Junior Davis Cup pre-qualifying round in Malaysia. They had made the final before losing to Vietnam.

Meanwhile in the U-16 semi-final, unseeded Haris Irfan-ul-Haq also stunned everybody when he overpowered third seed Barkatullah Khan in a match that stretched to three sets. Haris easily won the first set 6-2.

However, Barkatullah made an impressive good comeback to take the second set 6-2. The decisive set featured a neck-and-neck fight before Haris claimed the set 7-6 and with it the match.

In the other U-16 last-four clash, fourth seed Talha Bin Asif defeated unseeded Ilham Khan 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

In the U-14 semi-finals, Shoaib Khan defeated Rayyan Suhail 6-2, 6-1 and Hamza Bin Rehan outclassed Sami Zaib 6-2, 6-1.

Earlier, in U-12 and U-10 semi-finals -- being played on the best-of-15 format -- Kashan Umar beat Mohammad Talha Khan 8-1 and Ahmed Sami Zaib defeated Huzaifa Khan 8-1. In the U-10 semis, Ahmed Nael beat Ibrahim bin Suhail 8-2 and Kashan Umer outclassed Huzaifa Khan 8-1.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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