KARACHI, May 20: Unseeded Shahid Khan from Faisalabad and Farha Waseem caused quite a sensation on Friday, when they toppled top seeds Aqeel Khan and Sana Bhagat 6-4, 6-4, in the mixed doubles quarterfinal, in the National hard court tennis championship played at the Karachi Gymkhana.

Farha a ladies singles champion over a decade ago, was in impeccable form and displaying brilliance of her past, stole the show with flowing smashes and deft volleys which surprised her much superior opponents time again.

Her partner Shahid was not lacking behind and matched Farha’s aggressive play. The two looked a happy pair, marching triumphantly off the court, cheered by the tennis fans and will now take on Shafiq and Shahida in the semifinal on Saturday morning.

Seher Khawja teaming up with Jalil Khan forced their way into the final by finally shutting out the fighting combination of Gul Hamid from Quetta and Alay Zehra 6-4, 7-5. Earlier in the quarterfinals, the winners got the better of Nomi Qamer and Quratulain 6-3, 6-2.

After losing the first set 6-3, Nomi and Quratulain gave their supporters something to cheer about, taking a 2-0 lead in the second. But Jalil and Seher getting their act together once again, ran through the next six points to emerge 6-3, 6-2 winners.

Quratulain a 16-year-old from Lahore from the Rashid Malik tennis academy, however made her entry into the Girls singles final. In a hard fought out match Quratulain ended the winning run of Bushra Chawla 7-6 (9-7) 6-3.

Winning the first set after a fiercely fought out tiebreaker, Quratulian wore down her partner in the second to take the set and match 6-3.

She will now take on Mahak Tanveer in the Girls under-18 final. Mahak beat off the keen challenge of Samar Essa 6-1, 7-6. Samar did look a tired young lady after her semifinal encounter.

Earlier, in quarterfinals under the hot afternoon sun, she beat Danya Masood 6-0, 6-2. Eighth Shehzad Khan won plenty of applause after he shocked fourth seed Jalil Khan 7-5, 6-4 to book his entry into the last four. Using his height for good measure, Shehzad forced his opponent into several unforced errors.

Also entering the semifinal were top seed Aqeel Khan, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over M. Shafiq, second seed Asim Shafiq who blocked out the entry into the semis of Mahmood Khan 6-2, 6-2 and third seed Nomi Qamar, who had to break into a sweat in overcoming the fighting qualities of Inam Gul 6-4, 6-2.

In the men’s doubles, the top seeded Khan brothers Aqeel and Jalil were stretched to the limits before overcoming Nomi Qamar and M. Shafiq from Sahiwal 6-4, 6-4.

In both sets the scores were tied 4-4, before the Khan brothers broke their opponents serve on both ocassions to move ahead towards on the semifinal trail.

Also hrough were the second seeds Asim Shafiq and Shehzad Khan who seemed to be in fine fettle, disposing off Irfanullah and Shahid Afridi 6-3, 6-2.

Tanveer Ashiq from Lahore came from behind to overcome Khurram Nazir, also from Lahore 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to book his entry into the Boys under-17 finals, where he will take on top seed Yasir Khan a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Omer Baber.

In the Boys under-13 semifinal, Zuhair brimming with confidence, beat Abubaker 6-0, 6-2. He will now have to await the outcome of the Sunny William and Omer Shahid encounter. The match between these two was halted after Omer protested that Sunny was overage.

However, Sunny will be tested on Saturday morning after a wrist test is performed, If Sunny is found overage, Omer will then make his way through to the final.

Following were the results: