LAHORE, Aug 10: Ahmad Aslam fought back to march into the semifinals of the All Punjab Independence Day junior tennis tournament Under-12 event after beating Fahad Ali in three sets at the Punjab Tennis Association courts, in Bagh-i-Jinnah Saturday. Aslam after losing the first set clinched victory with the scoreline 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (8/6).

In the first set both the players successfully held their serves till three games all. Here Aslam made two consecutive double faults giving an opportunity to his opponent to break his serve. Again at 5-3, Fahad showed his potential hitting some excellent passing shots and won the first set 6-3.

However, Fahad failed to repeat the story of first set and lost his service game in row while on the other hand, Aslam took complete command by keeping high percentage of first serve followed by some excellent volleys to wrap up the set 6-0.

Fahad was looking more composed in the beginning of third set by gaining a commendable lead of 5-1. Fahad was serving for the match but caught up by Aslam who managed to levelled the score 5- 5 and then took the set into the tie-break.

Fahad was leading by six points to three in tie break and needed only one point to win this marathon contest but luck favoured Aslam as he fought back and won five points in a row to carve out an unlikely victory.

In other two quarterfinals played on Saturday, Omer Babar trounced Usman Sikandar 6-2, 6-4. The third seed Shehryar Niazi registered a facile 6-3, 6-3 win over Haider Zaidi.

In  the boys Under-18, the seeded players entered  the quarterfinals.

In the best match of the event, Jan Nisar Ahmad fought well to beat Ghulam Husain 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

In the only girls U-18 singles match, Maira Rahim defeated Maria 6-0, 6-0.

Results:

U-18 (pre-quarterfinals): Munir Ashiq bt Ali Javed 6-0, 6-1; Tanvir Ashiq bt Ahmad Hammad 6-2, 6-0; Jan Nisar Ahmed bt Ghulam Husain 6-2, 4-6, 6-1; Komail Hasan bt Shahid Arshad 6-1, 6-1; Shahrukh Niazi bt Masroor Ahmad 6-4, 6-4; Salman Bashir bt Talal Khan 6-0, 6-1. Boys Under-12 (quarterfinals): Omer Babar bt Usman Sikandar 6-2, 6-4; Ahmad Aslam bt Fahad Ali 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (8/6); Shehryar Niazi bt Haider Zaidi 6-3, 6-3. Girls singles U-18: Maira Rahim bt Maria 6-0, 6-0.