LAHORE: Pakistan’s number one Aqeel Khan and ladies top seed Ushna Suhail struck excellent performances to win their respective men’s single and ladies single titles of the 4th Hassan Tariq Raheem Masters Tennis Cup here at Lahore Gymkhana courts on Sunday.

Huzaifa Abdul Rehman won the the under-18 boys’ title after fighting all ends.

Having already won the doubles title while pairing with Pakistan’s star player Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, Aqeel had a tough time in the final against Mohammad Abid.

Aqeel did have some hurdles in the way to the final but experience prevailed over the lowly ranked players, who showed the number one that he had to earn the win.

Aqeel got to a flying start in the match which in turn got to be a pulsating encounter.

Aqeel would have thought after winning the opening set 6-1 that his return home would be early. but Abid tested Aqeel’s nerves in the second set.

It was Aqeel’s experience of playing long-duration matches that kept Abid struggling.

Abid’s fight extended the second set to a tie break but Aqeel came back strongly to every serve Abid served 6-7 (5) and in the final set Aqeel evaporated all the guts from Abid’s and won the set 6-3 and the match.

Chairman Lahore Gymkhana Kamran Lashari was the chief guest of the finals and distributed the prizes among the winners and other participants while Khawaja Ahmed Tariq Raheem was also present among the guests.

In the ladies final, Ushna Suhail was believed to face tough fight from Sarah Mahboob Khan but the latter melted maybe under pressure of the continuous wins of the former in the national circuit.

Ushna kept Sarah at bay in the opening set, did not allowing her even a single point to have a 6-0 win.

In the second set, Sarah showed some deliverance but only for two points with a reason being that Ushna was in thorough control of the match. Ultimately, Ushna saw Sarah sink to 6-0 and 6-2 difference.

Earlier in the day, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman and Mohammad Shoaib warmed up the tennis fans with a closely-contested under-18 boys’ final.

Huzaifa started the match on a positive note but Shoaib bounced back incredibly. Then both the players fought all ends to settle the final in the third set but Huzaifa turned out to be the better bet to claim the 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 win.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2018