ISLAMABAD: Unseeded Yu-Shun Lai of Chinese Taipei caused a major upset on the opening day of the ITA-SNGPL ITF Pakistan World Junior Ranking Tennis Championships when he eliminated fifth Seed Mohammad Nauman Aftab of Pakistan in straight sets here at the S.Dilawar Abbas PTF Complex on Monday.
Looking in complete command, Yu-Shun outclassed the 18-year-old Nauman 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of boys singles category.
In another match of the same category, Korea’s Kim Dong Hwan crushed seventh Seed Saqib Hayat of Pakistan 6-1, 6-4.
The most exciting encounter of the day however was played between Fayzullaev Ibrokhim of Uzbekistan and Pakistan’s Osama Khan, won by the former.
In the first set the score went up to 6-6 all as both the players hold their respective services, even in the tiebreak their was a close contest and the tie score went up to 9-9. At this stage, Fayzullaev made the passing winner to go ahead 10-9 and won the tiebreaker 11-9 with an ace.
A close contest was witnessed in the second as the score went up to 4-4. Fayzullaev break the ninth game at 40-15 and won the second set 6-4 by holding his own serve, and with it the match that lasted one hour and 40 minutes.
All the remaining seeded players moved to the next round by beating their respective opponents in the first round.
In all, 16 matches of boys and girls were played on the opening day of the championships featuring players from 15 countries.
Results (first round):
Boys singles: Fayzullaev Ibrokhim (Uzbekistan) bt Osama Khan (Pakistan) 7-6, 6-4; Yahha Luni (Pakistan) bt Taibzada Bilal (Afghanistan) 6-0, 6-0; Kim Dong Hwan (Korea) bt Saqib Hayat (Pakistan) 6-1, 6-4; Kim Min-Joon (Korea) bt Mohammad Talha Khan (Pakistan) 6-0, 6-0; Ratnayake Kavisha (Sri Lanka) bt Zalan Khan (Pakistan) 6-2, 6-3; Hamid Israr Gul (Pakistan) bt Tootoonchi Moghadam (Iran) 6-2, 7-6(2); Lai Yu-Shun (Chinese Taipei) bt Mohammad Nauman Aaftab (Pakistan) 6-3, 6-0; Shoaib Khan (Pakistan) bt Subhan Bin Salik (Pakistan) 6-1, 6-3; Shamsutdinov Oybekimirzo (Uzbekistan) bt Jawad Hyyat (Pakistan) 6-0, 6-2; Lu Chen-yu (Chinese Taipei) bt Semi Zeb Khan (Pakistan) 6-3, 6-0; Knese Luca Emanuel (Germany) bt Mohammad Huzaifa (Pakistan) 6-3, 6-3; Kamil Ahmed (Pakistan) bt Tan Curtis Hong Tseng (Hong Kong) 6-2, 6-1; Gunuk Kang (Korea) bt Mohammad Hadin (Pakistan) 6-2, 6-0; Aryan Giri (Nepal) bt Ahmed Nael Qureshi (Pakistan) 6-0, 6-0
Girls singles: Asima Sazanova (Kazakhstan) bt Zoha Asim (Pakistan) 6-0, 6-2; Leyla Nilufer Elmas (Turkey) bt Imsha Jawad (Pakistan) 6-1, 6-1
Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019