LAHORE: Unseeded Shoaib Khan of SNGPL upset top seed Harris Irfan-ul-Haq while his departmental-mate Aman Atiq fought hard to enter the U-19 boys’ final of the third Alam al-khayal Junior National Tennis Championships here at the Bagh-e-Jinnah on Friday.

Shoaib upset top seed Harris Irfan-ul-Haq in three-setter semi-final to march into the final while Aman beat spirited Yousuf Khan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in another three-setter semi-final.

Shoaib while overcoming the challenge of the top seeded player won the grueling final 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 which lasted almost three hours.

Aman also won his semi-final to make it all-SNGPL final to be held on Saturday. Aman struggled to beat Yousuf also in a three-set match 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.

In the girls section, Mahin Aftab and Shimza Tahir moved into the final. While Mahin toppled Maha Saeed 6-1, 6-1, Shimza trounced Nida Akram 6-3, 6-0 in semi-finals.

In the boys U-18 doubles semi-finals, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman and Aman Atiq Khan beat duo of Mohammad Said and Hamaza bin Rehan 6-1, 6-1 and qualified for the final. First semi-final of the event was played on Thursday.

In boys’ U-16 semi-finals, Shoaib Khan drafted a victory against Huzaifa Abdul Rehman 6-3, 6-1 while Hamaza bin Rehan chalked up a victory against Nalain Abbas 6-1, 6-2 to set the final against each other.

Results:

Boys U-14 (semi-finals): Nalain Abbas bt Abdul Hanan Khan 6-0, 6-1; Faizan Fayyaz bt Ahmed Kamil 6-4, 6-4.

Boys U-12 (semi-finals): Abdul Hanan Khan bt Bilal Asim 8-5; Kashan Umer bt Hamaza Jawad 8-2.

U-10 (semi-finals): Hamaza Roman bt Ehtasham Arif 8-0; Ehtasam Humayun bt Abubakar Tala 8-7.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2017