Sports Bulletin Report
ISLAMABAD: Top seed, Mohammad Shoaib thrashed second seed Aqeel Khan in straight sets 2-0 in the Men’s Singles final of the 36th Federal Cup National Ranking Tennis Championships that concluded here at PTF-SDA Tennis Complex on Sunday. The final score-line was 6-2, 6-4.
In the Men’s Singles final, 22-year-old top seed Mohammad Shoaib of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) outclassed Aqeel Khan 2-0 after the lasted 1 hour 18 minutes on the court. Shoaib got off to a flying start, taking a 4-2 lead by breaking the first game of Aqeel Khan and kept the same pressure to win the first set at 6-2.
In the second set, Aqeel fought back but young Shoaib did not allow Aqeel to settle down and exhibited excellent tennis from the base-line and broke the 7th game of Aqeel to build up the winning streak 4-3 in which Aqeel hit a double fault. Shaoib continued the same pressure and in the 10th game, he hit strong serve game and won the set by hitting ace and clinched the Men’s Singles title at 6-2 6-4.
Earlier in the day, the Ladies’ Singles Sarah Mahboob clinched the title by eliminating up-comping youngster Amna Ali Qayum from Islamabad in a well-fought straight sets final. Sarah won the toss and chose to serve. Both the players exhibited excellent game of tennis down the line and cross-court, Sarah took the lead 5-4 and broke the 10th game of Amna and won the set at 6-4.
In the second set both the players again played the marvelous game of tennis with the combination of excellent cross-court and down the lines. Sarah took the lead of 5-3 by breaking the 8th game of Aman, but Aman fought back bravely and managed to level the score 5 games all by breaking the 9th game of Sarah. In the 11th game, Sarah took the serve advance and again developed the winning lead 6-5. In the 12th game, Aman was unable to maintain her confidence and hit two double faults. Sarah took the advantage and comfortably broke the game and won the set and match at 6-4 7-5.
Sayyed Mubasshar Tauqir Shah Addl. Secretary, Information and Managing Director PTV unable to come to witness the final due to an emergent official engagement at Ministry. Usama Azhar Director Sport PTV and Majid Bashir Senior Executive Vice President of Islamabad Tennis Association graced the occasion as guest of honor and distributed the prizes amongst the winners and runners-up.
Results (finals):
Men’s Singles: Mohammad Shoaib beat Aqeel Khan 6-2, 6-4
Ladies’ Singles: Sarah Mahboob Khan beat Amna Ali Qayum 6-4, 7-5
Boys & Girls U10 Singles: Mohammad Arsh beat Mohammad Faizan 4-2, 4-1
Men’s Doubles: Mohammad Shoaib / Muzammil Murtaza beat Yousaf Khalil / Barkatullah 4-6, 7-6 (2), 10-6.
Boys’ U18 Singles: Hamza Roman beat Hamid Israr 7-5, 6-3
Boys’ U14 Singles: Mohammad Hassan Usmani beat Zohaib Afzal Malik 7-6 (3), 6-2.
