Aqeel
Khan among top stars to play in Karachi, July 5: National tennis champion Aqeel Khan is among a host of top men’s tennis stars who have confirmed to play in the Subh-e-Nau national hard court tennis championship that began here Saturday at the Modern Club tennis complex. Pakistan’s leading Davis cupper Aqeel Khan has been top seeded with Asim Shafiq taking second position in seeding and Jalil Khan Seed three. Nomi Qamar is seed four. Subh-e-Nau, an environment and public health concern, also a tennis organising body, is organising the championships. Pakistan’s ITF White badge referee Shahzad Akhtar Alvi is supervising the championship which has attracted a sizable number of entries though the event was held at short notice. Subh-e-Nau is hosting two events back to back. After the national hard court the Subh-e-Nau tennis championship will be held. The championship was to be held at the CDGK tennis complex on Kashmir road but was shifted to Modern Club on Tipu Sultan road. The shifting of the venue resulted in a few walk over in the men’s singles qualifying round which began on Saturday morning. Shahzad Akhtar said that the first qualifying round is best of eight games contest but the second round would be best of three sets. Winner of the second round would enter the main draw of 32, he said. He was satisfied with the entries in men’s and boys event and said entries in girls event were also being received but the exact number of ladies participants would only be known in couple of days. Usually the qualifying round are tame businesses and seldom a keen contest is seen in these rounds but Omer Shahid and Talha saeed surprised every one when they played a hard fought three sets contest in the second round of the qualifying round. Omer Shahid won the contest 2-6,6-3,6-4. Recovering after
a set down on fast cemented courts is bit tricky but Omer Shahid fought
hard to look the win easy. Men’s Singles Second round: |