Aqeel bags singles title at tennis tournament

Pakistan number one records convincing victory in event finale.

KARACHI:

Pakistan number one Aqeel Khan stormed to victory in the men’s singles final at the UBL International Hardcourt Tennis Championship, beating Muhammad Abid Mushtaq 6-1, 6-0 at the Karachi Gymkhana.

The victory marked Aqeel’s third title at the tournament where he had already won the men’s doubles and mixed doubles events. Aqeel defeated third-seed Mushtaq with ease, only facing resistance in the opening two games of the first set. He was delighted with his dream run at the event.

“It’s been a great run for me, three titles in one tournament is not bad at all,” Khan told The Express Tribune. “Having the Sri Lankans playing in the tournament was really good too as it certainly improved the level of competition and the encouraging thing is that Pakistani players put up a good show against them.”

Aqeel also welcomed the reopening of Karachi Gymkhana’s hardcourts.

“I’m really happy that the hardcourts have opened again after seven years. This has been my favourite court in the city but it had been closed for such a long time.

“Now that it has hosted such a big event, I’m hoping that we will see more tournaments being held here.”

Meanwhile, the highlight of the day proved to be the exhibition match played by Aisamul Haq Qureshi, who teamed up with another Lahore-based player Usman Rafiq to play a doubles match against Aqeel and Mushtaq, with the latter pair winning the one-set match 6-4.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2011.