ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s star duo of Aisam-ul-Haq and Aqeel Khan outclassed Mohammad Salar and Hamza Aasim in the men’s doubles quarter-final of the Serena Hotels National Ranking Championship here at the SDA-PTF Tennis Complex on Thursday.

The experienced duo, who over the years steered Pakistan to several victories in Davis Cup ties, won the first set without conceding a single point against the lower-ranked pair of Salar and Hamza. Aisam and Aqeel did not allow their opponents to settle and easily bagged the next set 6-1 and with it the match to qualify for the last-four stage.

In other men’s doubles quarter-finals, Muzammil Murtaza and Mohammad Shoaib defeated Mudassir Murtaza and Abdullah Adnan 6-3, 3-6(10-7); Moham­mad Abid and Shahzad Khan got walk over against Sami Zeb and M. Zaryab while Yousuf Khalil and Barkatullah outplayed the Hamid Israr-Asadullah duo 6-2, 6-2 to make the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Aqeel, Muzammil, Shoaib and Abid cruised into the men’s singles semi-finals after recording facile wins in their respective last-eight matches.

Matches in the categories of women’s singles, boys U-18 and U-14 were also held on Thursday.

Results:

Men’s singles (quarter-finals): Mohammad Shoaib bt Yousuf Khalil 6-2, 6-4; Muzammil Murtaza bt Mudassir Murtaza 6-2, 6-2; Mohammad Abid bt Abdullah Adnan 6-4, 6-1; Aqeel Khan bt Barkatullah 6-2, 6-3

Women’s singles (quarter-finals): Meheq Khokhar bt Zara Khan 6-0, 6-0; Soha Ali bt Natalia Zaman 6-4, 6-3

Boys U-18 (quarter-finals): Hamza Roman bt Ahtesham Humatyun 6-2, 6-3; Hamza Aasim bt Haamid Israr 6-4, 6-2; Asad Zaman bt Mohammad Salar 6-1, 6-4; Ahmed Nael bt Mahatir Mohammad 7-5, 6-2

Boys U-14 (second round): Sameer Zaman bt Junaid Meher 4-1, 4-0; Amir Mazari bt Hassan Usmani 4-2, 4-2; Razik Sultan bt Mahd Mehmood 4-1, 4-0; Ruhaab Faisal bt Mohammad Yahya 4-1, 4-2; Abdul Basit bt Zohaib Amjad 4-1, 4-0; Haziq Areejo bt Saqib Ali 4-1, 4-1; Ansarullah bt Laraib Shamsi 4-1, 1-4, 4-0; M. Haziq Aasim bt Orhan Sohail 4-0, 4-0.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2023