Easy sailing for seeded players

Published March 1, 2006

KARACHI, Feb 28: Top seed Aqeel Khan started the defence of his crown by chalking up a straight victory over Eyhab Burky to cruise into the pre-quarterfinals of Greener Pakistan National Hard Court tennis at Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Aqeel who got a bye in the first round was home 6-0, 6-4.

Other seeded players also faced no difficulty in outwitting their opponent’s. Second seed Asim Shafik got the better of M. Manzer 6-1, 6-2 while third seed Nomi Qamar notched up 6-1, 6-1 victory over Ghulam Abbas.

Fourth seed Jalil Khan advanced into the last 16 without playing a match. After getting a first round bye he got a walk over against M. Z. Khatak.

Besides Jalil, Sunny Williams also got a walk over against Rizwan Shamsi that put him into the next round.

Upcoming Sarah Mahboob, the top seed, made it to the last four in the girls U-17 singles posting a straight 6-0, 6-0 victory over Moomal Majeed.

Second seed Sara Mansoor downed Eman Malik 6-1, 6-0 while Saba Aziz whitewashed Mariam 6-0, 6-0 to reach the semis.

Highly promising Khwaja Hamza who annexed a double crown in the just concluded Sindh ranking tournament maintained his form when he overwhelmed Omer Usman 6-2, 6-3 to enter boys U-13 second round.

Results:

Men’s singles: (second round): Adnan Khan bt Mehboob Khan 6-3, 6-1; Gul Hameed bt Essa Jee 6-0, 6-0; Sunny Williams w/o Rizwan Shamsi; Nomi Qamar bt Ghulam Abbas 6-1, 6-1; Inan Gul bt Nawab 6-0, 6-0; Usman Ijaz bt Shaeel 6-0, 6-2; Raja Asif bt Syed Abbas Raza 6-2, 6-2; Asim Shafik bt M. Manzer 6-1, 6-2; Aqeel Khan bt Eyhab Burky 6-0, 6-4; Jalil Khan w/o M. Z. Khatak; Muteeb Pasha bt Taimoor Iftikhar 6-0 7-6 (5); Mubashir Afridi bt Munir Memon 6-0, 6-1; M. Shafiq bt Salman Ahmed 6-0, 6-2.

Girls U-17 singles: (first round): Sarah Mahboob bt Moomal Majeed 6-0, 6-0; Saba Aziz bt Mariam 6-0, 6-0; Sara Mansoor bt Eman Malik 6-1, 6-0.

Boys U-13 singles: (first round): Tayyab bt M. Shahrukh 6-1, 6-4; Irfan bt Ali Zaid 6-4, 6-4; Khwaja Hamza bt Omer Usman 6-2, 6-3; Nameer Shamsi bt Ali Zubair 6-0, 6-1; Talha bt S. Uzair 1-6, 6-4, 6-4; Vinod bt Rahil Suhail 6-0, 6-0; Ramis Farishta bt Arif 6-2, 7-5; Abdul Rehman bt Ahsan A. Rehman 6-0, 6-0; Shehryar w/o Ibrahim ; Kashif bt Taha Sereng 6-0, 6-1; Qamber Haider bt Hamza Bin Asif 6-1, 6-2; Adil Kohari bt Usman Bilmani 6-1, 6-2.

Wednesday’s fixtures: Men’s singles pre-quarterfinals 10.00am.

Boys U-17 singles second round; Boys U-13 second round 1.00pm.

Women’s singles first round; Men’s doubles first round 2.30pm.

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