KARACHI, July 15: Pakistan No 1 Aqeel Khan claimed his third national ranking title of the year when he whipped sibling Jalil Khan in straight sets in the men’s singles final of the Subh-e-Nau Tennis Cup at Modern Club on Tuesday.

Jalil came close to extending the seasoned opponent to full distance but bowed down in a tie-breaker in the second after losing the opener. Aqeel was home 6-2, 7-6 (3).

The triumph enabled Aqeel to complete a double crown as pairing with Jalil the duo landed the men’s doubles title on Monday.

“I was 3-2 up in the second set when Jalil changed his game plan and brought me under pressure before losing in a tie-breaker,” Aqeel told Dawn after the match.

Earlier, Aqeel had beaten Jalil 6-3, 6-3 in the semi-finals of the National Hard Court tennis championship at the same venue last week on way to retaining the crown beating Nomi Qamar in the final.

Aqeel’s first victory of the year came in April when he handed out 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) defeat to Asim Shafik in the agonising Pakistan Open final.

Islamabad’s Natasha Afridi, the fourth seed, captured her back-to-back title inflicting 6-1, 6-1 defeat on Lahore’s Saba Aziz, the third seed, in the one-sided final.

She became the new National Hard Court champion by getting the better of top seed Sara Mansoor 6-2, 6-4 last week.

Lahore’s Heera Ashiq also maintained his winning run when he squeezed past Karachi’s Syed Zohair Raza 6-1, 6-0 without any resistance to land juniors’ under-17 crown.

Zohair has been totally off-colour this season which is evident from his poor performance.

Islamabad’s up and coming Kashan-ul-Haq, winner of the Federal Cup crown last year, added another title to his tally when he carved out 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ali Mooraj in the boys’ under-13 final.

Aqeel received winning purse of Rs33,000 and a trophy while Jalil took home Rs20,000 and runner-up trophy.

Natasha was awarded Rs20,000 while Saba received Rs12,000 in addition to the trophies.

Cash prizes worth Rs1,80,000 were distributed among winners and runners-up by chairperson of NGO Subh-e-Nau, Shahida Kauser Farooq.

Khawaja Saeed Hai, senior vice-president, Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), former Olympian Abdul Waheed Khan, administrator, Modern Club, and Waseem Khan, manager of the club, also distributed prizes.

The facilities were provided free of cost by secretary of the club, Mr. Nasser Jaffer.

Results (finals):

Boys’ under-13 singles:

Kashan-ul-Haq (Islamabad) bt Ali Mooraj 6-3, 6-0.

Juniors’ under-17 singles:

Heera Ashiq (Lahore) bt Syed Zohair Raza 6-1, 6-0.

Ladies singles:

Natasha Afridi (Islamabad) bt Saba Aziz (Lahore) 6-1, 6-1.

Men’s singles:

Aqeel Khan bt Jalil Khan 6-2, 7-6 (3).