KARACHI, Feb 22: Top seed Aqeel Khan made it to the men’s singles quarter-finals without playing a match in the Sindh ranking tennis tournament at the CDGK sports complex on Thursday.

After getting first round bye, the Davis Cupper got a walkover against Robin Das in the next round on the second day of the competition. The latter had beaten Faisal Mehmood of Islamabad 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Das who was present at the venue opted for walkover instead of taking the field.

Aqeel’s younger brothers – second seed Jalil and third seed Yasir – also stormed into the last eight with comfortable ease. Jalil blanked Hussain Jessani 6-0, 6-0 while Yasir beat Adnan Yousuf 6-0, 6-1.

Others who qualified for the quarter-finals were Vinod Das, Rizwan Shamsi, Abbas Raza and Nasir Mushtaq. The winner of Zuhair Raza/Mubashir Afridi will join the above to complete the last eight stage.

Talented Abdul Rehman halted Nameer Shamsi’s winning run handing 6-4, 6-0 defeat to advance in the juniors U-17 semi-finals. Nameer had beaten Mustafa Zaidi in three sets the other day.

Four more walkovers were registered – three in boys U-15 and one in U-13 – in addition to the one in men’s singles.

Prodigy Khwaja Hamza who picked up his maiden National ranking title in boys U-11 last month opened his campaign on a winning note when he disposed off Yousuf Khan 6-0, 6-1 in the boys U-13 category.

Hamza’s contemporary Imran Mooraj was stretched to limits by Uzair Qadir before winning 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.

Results:

Men’s singles (second round):

Vinod Das bt Rana Azmatullah 6-1, 6-1; Jalil Khan bt Hussain Jessani 6-0, 6-0; Rizwan Shamsi bt Ahmed Ejaz 6-2, 6-3; Yasir Khan bt Adnan Yousuf 6-0, 6-1; S. Abbas Raza bt Hassan Ahmed 6-2, 6-0; Aqeel Khan w/o Robin Das; Nasir Mushtaq bt Taimoor Mehmood 7-6(7-2), 6-3.

Juniors U-17 singles (second round):

Hashim Khan bt Muneeb Khan 6-1, 6-2; Abdul Rehman bt Nameer Shamsi 6-4, 6-0.

Men’s doubles (qualifying round):

Shahzaib/Fahim bt Ashad Chaudhri/Konain Qurban 6-0, 6-4.

Boys U-15 singles (second round):

Uzair Abdul Qadir w/o Ibrahim Tawwab; Ashad Chaudhri w/o Omer Shahid; Hashim Khan w/o Noman Khan.

Ladies singles (first round):

Seher Khwaja bt Aysha Mir 6-2, 6-1; Domichi Michico bt Aliya Hai 6-2, 6-0.

Boys U-13 singles (first round):

Adil Kohari w/o Kashif Khan; Imran Mooraj bt Uzair A. Qadir 4-6, 6-0, 6-3; Khwaja Hamza bt Yousuf Khan 6-0, 6-1.

Friday’s fixtures:

Men’s singles (quarter-finals), ladies singles (quarter-finals) 11am; juniors U-17 singles (quarter-finals) 12noon; boys U-15 singles (second round) 2pm; Boys U-13, U-11 singles (first rounds) 3pm.

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