Peshawar’s 1st national tennis event begins

Players content with security arrangements.

KARACHI: Top seeds Aqeel Khan and Yasir Khan began their Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Tennis Association National Grasscourt Championship with straight-sets wins.

Aqeel defeated Mohammad Mudassar 6-1, 6-1 and Yasir outplayed Iftikhar Ahmed 6-2, 6-2. Mohammad Abid overcame Sadanul Haq 6-4, 6-2, and Gibranul Haq beat Ali Masud 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Mudassar, meanwhile, progressed in the under-18 event, beating Imran Mughal 6-1, 6-1 while Ahmed Babar defeated Mohammad Mazhar 6-3, 6-4.

“The event is huge for us, the players in Peshawar,” Arsalan Khan told The Express Tribune. “We really need some exposure at home venues and it was unfair of the Pakistan Tennis Federation to not hold tournaments in Peshawar.”

Meanwhile according to Aqeel, security was the only concern, but since the tournament is taking place in a Garrison Service Club, many players, who had the same concern, came to Peshawar after little insistence.

“When you think of Peshawar you think of bomb-blasts, but for the tennis circuit in Pakistan, having tournaments here is important.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2012.