KARACHI, May 7: Shahid Aziz playing superb tennis, upset top seed Karim Gul Agha 6-2, 6-3, lifting the men’s singles plus 35 crown, in the National Senior Tennis Championship played at Karachi Gymkhana. Excelling with powerful cross court smashes and deft drop shots, Shahid won the first set quite easily 6-2. Although Karim tried desperately hard to stem the rot, Shahid continued to attack and went on to pick up the second set and match 6-3.
In the men’s doubles plus 45 final, Humayun Zafar, a former National Games gold medallist and Baber Ali Khan got the better of Tariq Sadozai and Shaheen Minhas 6-3, 6-4.
Humayun relying heavily on his forceful serves, was well supported by Baber. On the other hand Shaheen surprisingly committed many unforced errors and although his partner Tariq scored numerous points with neat placing over the net, it was not good enough to see the pair through to victory.
Going back on court a little later, Tariq this time had Tayeeb Yousuf as his partner in the Men’s doubles plus 35 semifinal, while Shaheen partnered Khawaja Masroor, the plus 45 singles champion.
Once again Shaheen ran into a string of errors as Tariq and Tayeeb building up the points won the first set 6-2.
But getting back into his strides and playing much better tennis, Shaheen gave Masroor splendid support.
However the Tariq and Tayeeb combination proved too good as they forced their way into the final with a 6-2 6-4 victory, where they will meet Shahid Aziz and Baber Ali Khan in the final on Sunday.
Following were the results:
Men’s singles plus 35 (final)
Shahid Aziz bt Karim Gul Agha 6-3, 6-2.
Men’s doubles plus 35 (semifinals)
Tariq Sadozai and Tayeeb Yousuf bt Khawaja Masroor and Shaheen Minhas 6-2, 6-4.
Men’s doubles plus 45 (final)
Humuyan Zafar and Baber Ali Khan bt Tariq Sadozai and Shaheen Minhas 6-3, 6-4.
Fixtures for Sunday.
Men’s singles plus 45 (final)
Karim Gul Agha v/s Khawaja Masroor at 5.30 p.m.
Men’s doubles plus 35 (final)
Shahid Aziz and Baber Ali Khan v/s Tariq Sadozai and Tayeeb Yousuf at 5-30 p.m.