Samir ousted in first round of Czech Open

Pakistan’s tennis player Samir Iftikhar was defeated in the first round of the ITF Zentiva Czech Junior Open 2010.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s junior tennis player Samir Iftikhar was defeated in the first round of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Zentiva Czech Junior Open 2010, succumbing to Italian Amerigo Contini 6-2 6-3.

Ranked 276th in the world, Iftikhar started his campaign with confidence and won the first game of the match. But his Italian opponent fought back to win four straight games, without giving Iftikhar any chance to recover, and went onto seal the first set 6-2.

Contini continued to dominate the second set with powerful backhand shots and volleys. And even though Iftikhar managed to secure his first game of the second set when the Italian made two double faults in the third game, he could not contain Contini who took a 4-2 lead within the next 15 minutes.

Iftikhar did fight back in the next game to reduce the deficit to 4-3 but Contini sealed his progress with the 6-3 win.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2010.