LAHORE: Asad Zaman and Bilal Asim excelled on the opening day of the Third Tennis Lovers Junior National Tennis Championship, advancing to the second round in both under-18 and under-16 competitions at the Punjab Tennis Academy here on Tuesday.

Asad overwhelmed Abdul Hanan Khan 6-4, 6-2 while Bilal eased past Arman Kamran 6-3, 6-3 in their boys’ singles under-18 matches. In other matches, Hamid Israr served a double bagel thrashing to Omer Shaf­ique, Hamza Jawad thumped Hanzala Anwar 6-1, 6-2, Ali Jawad beat Husnain Ali 6-4, 6-4 and Zaeem Ghafoor overpowered Inam Qadir 6-1, 6-2.

Asad overcame a strong challenge from Shaharyar Anees as he won 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to progress in the under-16 singles event while Bilal sailed past Inam Qadir 6-0, 6-0. Ahtesham Humayun won by the same scoreline against Zain Saeed 6-0, 6-0 and Hamza Roman beat M Sohaan Noor 6-1, 6-2.

In the only boys’ under-14 singles match on Tuesday, Abdullah Sajjad Wahla beat Essa Fahad 4-2, 5-4 (7-5).

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022