Tennis: Aqeel-Maqdas record straight-sets win

Pakistan’s number one and Kuwaiti partner advance in tennis event.

KARACHI:

Pakistan number one Aqeel Khan and his Kuwaiti partner Abdullah Maqdas cruised into the quarter-finals of the UAE Men’s Future One doubles event, defeating the Columbian and Portuguese pairing of Goncalo Pereira and Cristian Rodriguez 6-3 6-2 in Fujairah.

Aqeel, who crashed out of the second qualifying round in the singles event after going down to India’s Ashwin Vijayragavan 6-4, 6-4, was confident of his chances with Maqdas.

“Playing doubles is where I’m comfortable,” Aqeel told The Express Tribune. “I think we outplayed Pereira and Rodriguez in style — these guys have a lot of international exposure.

“It’s very encouraging and my priority is to win the doubles events now. We’ve made it into the top 16 without much effort, but the tournament will get harder.”

Aqeel, who is now the only player representing Pakistan at the event after Syed Zohair Raza, Salman Hasan and Ahmed Chaudhry were knocked out, said that he chose to have another player as his doubles partner since none of his teammates have a lot of international exposure.

“I’m already struggling because of my lack of international exposure and getting another player who is also inexperienced in these conditions would ruin my chances.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2012.