LAHORE: Second seed Mohammad Abid stunned top seed Aqeel Khan while Ushna Suhail ousted Sara Mansoor to clinch men’s and women’s singles titles in the third EBM Pakistan Open Tennis Championship here on Saturday. In the closely-contested men’s final, Abid displayed excellent skills against 38-year-old favourite Aqeel to win the final 7-6, 7-6. It is the first time during the last ten years that veteran Aqeel, the longstanding national champion, has lost a final. In the first set both the rivals were up at 6-6 by holding their serves. At that moment, it seemed Aqeel with his vast experience will win the tiebreaker but Abid displayed better stamina to clinch it. The second set also proved exciting, as both the players held their serves to take this set also into tie-breaker in which Abid again overcame Aqeel. In the women’s final, Ushna showed sublime form to outclass Sara 6-2, 6-3. Ushna grabbed the first set quite easily after it was tied at 3-3. Ushna, who is Pakistan’s only world-ranking female player, once again showed her class and utilised her international experience to win the second set and with it the match and the title. The U-18 title was won by Mohammad Shoaib who beat Huzaifa Abdul Rehman 7-5, 7-6 while the U-10 title went to Hamza Roman who subdued Abu Bakar Talha 8-1.
Published in Daily Times, October 29th 2018.