ISLAMABAD: A number of promising youngsters moved into the main draw after winning their respective qualifying matches of the Federal Tennis Cup National Ranking Tennis Championships which started here at the PTF Complex on Monday.

Top eight ranked players of the country — including Aqeel Khan, Mohammad Abid, Mohammad Shoaib, Heera Ashiq, Mudassar Murtaza, Yousuf Khalil, Ahmed Chaudhry and Barkatullah — are already in main draw, which starts on Tuesday.

On Monday, Ahmad Kamil, Kamran Khan, Mahatir Mohammad, Mohammad Usman Ejaz, Talha Bin Asif, Abbas Khan, Jabir Ali and Shaheen Mehmood qualified for the main draw of the men’s singles by winning their respective matches on the opening day of the 34th edition of the championships.

A total of 48 matches were decided on the qualifying day. According to the organisers, 20 players were accepted directly into the main draw as per PTF national ranking while four wild card and eight qualifiers completed the draw of 32.

Final qualifying round: Ahmad Kamil bt Faizan Shahid 8-0; Kamran Khan bt Mohammad Bilal 8-6; Mahatir Mohammad bt Ahmed Nael Qureshi 8-3; Mohammad Usman Ejaz bt Mohammad Talha Khan 8-3; Talha Bin Asif bt Hamid Israr 3-2 — retired; Abbas Khan bt Mohammad Zaryab 8-6; Jabir Ali bt Abdul Karim 8-1; Shaheen Mehmood bt Azeem Khan 8-4.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2021