LAHORE, April 11: All the top seed players have qualified for the quarter-final of the fifth All Pakistan Badminton tournament after winning their second round matches at the New Khan Sports Hall courts on Thursday.
The Pakistan No 1, Wajid Ali (New Khan) earned a facile straight games win against Arshad Khan (PTCL). Wajid with powerful smashes and fine foot work defeated Arshad 7-4, 7-2, 7-2.
Second seed Ali Yar Beg (ABL) carved out a win against Akram (Wapda) also in straight games. Beg who faced good opposition in the third, finally turned out as a 7-0, 7-4, 8-7 winner.
Third seed Waqas Ahmad (New Khan), however, fought hard to beat Muhammad Shafiq (PTCL) 3-1. Waqas dropped the second game before completing victory with scores of 7-2, 7-0, 3-7, 8-6.
Omar Zeeshan the fourth seed from Wapda, defeated Faisal Afzal (New Khan) after losing the first game 0-7, then grabbing the next three 7-1, 7-2, 7-0.
Fifth seed Ashraf Masih (PTCL) recovered to beat Muhammad Atiq 3-1. Ashraf lost the first game but won the remaining three games to earn a fine 6-8, 7-4, 7-0, 7-3 win.
Aamir Islam a seasoned campaigner from Wapda, went the full distance against Shabbar Hussain (New Khan). Islam lost the second and the fourth games before coming through 7-3, 5-7, 7-5, 4-7, 7-3. The gruelling fight lasted for almost two hours.
Ahsan Qamar (PIA) stunned the experienced rival Tahir Ishaq (Wapda) 3-1. Tahir won the first game but Ahsan bounced back by winning the remaining three games winning the match 4-7, 7-5, 7-2, 7-2.
Zafar Tasnim (New Khan) fought hard to beat Imran Mohib (New Khan) 3-2 in another well contested match. Zafar won after losing the first and third games with the score being 2-7, 8-6, 2-7, 7- 0, 7-5 in his favour.
Three quarter-finals of the women’s doubles were decided.
The top pair of Butt’s sisters Aasma and Uzma (PIA) defeated Aasma and Salama (Jehlum) easily 7-0, 7-1, 7-1.
Zahida Ali and Shama Akhtar (PIA) outplayed Shama and Mudassara (Sargodha) 7-3, 7-2, 7-4 in another quarter-final.
Saima and Shazia (Wapda) proved too good against the combination of Aneela and Rabia (Lahore) 7-1, 7-2, 7-4.
Earlier on Wednesday night, two men’s doubles pre quarter- final were decided.
The results were:
Akhtar Abbas and Abid Ali (ABL) bt Abdul Wadood and Imran (New Khan) 7-0, 7-4, 7-0, Furrukh Jabbar and Naveed (New Khan) bt Hashar Bashir and Moazzam (Government College, Lahore) 7-3, 8-7, 7-5.