ISLAMABAD: Aggressive Abdul Raheem and Raheela Kashif, after tough competitions, won the men and women’s finals of the Table Tennis Masters Cup here at the Hamidi Hall of the Pakistan Sports Complex on Friday.

Raheem, after a long battle of seven tensed sets, defeated Mohammad Rameez 4-3.

The right-hander Rameez, who belonged to Wapada, took good start and won the first set 12-10.

Left-hander Raheem, who also belonged to Wapda, made aggressive comeback in the next set, outclassing Rameez 11-4.

Rameez accelerated his efforts of putting pressure on his opponent through powerful forehand shots, thus winning the third and fourth sets 11-3 and 11-7.

The momentum of the game changed in the fifth set when Raheem bounced back from the jaws of defeat to win it 11-9.

He never looked back from there, winning the sixth and seventh sets 11-8, 13-11.

Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) Riaz Hussain Pirzada, who was the chief guest and distributed prizes among players, hailed performance of both the players and announced equal prize money for them —Rs50,000.

“Both young players played superbly and deserve to get this prize money,” the minister said.

Earlier, in the ladies singles final, Raheela Kashif of Habib Bank Limited defeated Wapda’s Ayesha Iqbal 4-2.

After losing the first game, Raheela settled her feet on the court and won next two games in a row by playing brilliant strokes.

She then lost the next before winning two more games to win the match. In the men’s team event, Railways beat Wapda 3-2 while HBL defeated Wapda 3-0 in the women’s team event.

The tournament was played in collaboration with the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) under the banner of Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF). The federal minister announced Rs15,000 each for Raheela and Ayesha.

PTTF president Mohammad Sabtain, OGDCL Sports Board president Shahid Rafiq Ahmed and others were also present on the occasion.

Results (finals):

Men’s singles: Abdul Raheem (Wapda) bt Mohammad Rameez (Wapda) 10-12, 11-4, 3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 13-11.

Women’s singles: Raheela Kashif (HBL) bt Ayesha Iqbal (Wapda) 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 16-14, 11-8).

Men’s team event: Railways bt Wapda 3-2 (Salam Virk (Railways) bt Mohammad Rameez (Wapda) 3-0; Asim Qureshi (Wapda) bt Yasir Bhatti (Wapda) 3-0; Saleem Abbas (Wapda) bt Masood Ali (Railways) 3-1; Salman Virk (Railways) bt Asim Qureshi (Wapda) 3-1; Yasir Bhatti (Railways) bt Mohammad Rameez (Wapda) 3-1.

Women’s team event: HBL bt Wapda 3-0 (Ghalia Mohsin (HBL) bt Sanum Yaseen (Wapda) 3-0; Shabnum Bilal (HBL) bt Ayesha Iqbal (Wapda) 3-1; Raheela Kashif (HBL) bt Sadia Falak (Wapda) 3-0.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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