ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: Top seed Aqeel Khan of Pakistan overcame a stiff challenge from the second seed Japan's Toshiaki Sakai to capture the first leg of ITF International Satellite Circuit tennis championship at Islamabad Club clay courts on Sunday.

Aqeel, 24, beat left-handed Sakai 7-6(3), 7-6(5) to register his maiden victory in only his second international satellite tournament, receiving the top prize of nearly Rs. 50,000.

The way he mastered the clay courts, Aqeel is likely to dominate the next two legs at grass in Lahore as also the "Masters" at his home turf of hard courts in Karachi. Should he garner handsome points in the four legs of this international satellite ranking tournament, Aqeel can vastly improve his current international ranking of 581.

Aqeel showed steely nerves, coming from behind and stretching both the sets to tie-breaks against the world no. 609 Japanese. In the tie-breaks too, he lived up to the challenge to win the first leg in which the participating players were from India, Austria, Italy, USA, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and indeed from Pakistan.

Winning the toss and deciding to serve, Aqeel lost the very first service of the final. However, he came back on level terms by breaking Sakai in the very next game. The Japanese came close to clinching the first set by breaking Aqeel in the 9th game again.

But Aqeel underlined his fighting qualities by registering break of his own in the 10th game. He also had a chance to break Sakai in the 12th game and win the set at 7-5 but somehow squandered the opportunity as the set went into tie- break.

It was Aqeel Khan all the way in the tie-break as he quickly got to seven points, restricting Sakai to just three points. At one stage in the second set of the best-of-three final, Aqeel seemed to be fighting a lost cause as Sakai surged to 4-1 lead with break in the fourth game.

However, Aqeel was not to be underestimated as the youngster stormed back into reckoning by breaking Sakai's serve in the seventh game and holding his own serves, including the one in the 12th game.

Aqeel was serving in the 12th game but conceded a 0-40 lead to Sakai before rallying back to save four set points, winning the game after two "deuces" and thus taking the set to tie-break at 6-6. In the tie-break too, Aqeel slumped 1-3 but had guts enough to come from behind and win the set and the match. -APP