Islamabad :
The 36th Federal Cup National Ranking Tennis Championships moved into the finals phase after arduous and effortful tennis playing activity at PTF-SDA Tennis Complex, Islamabad.
In the first semifinal top seed Muhammad Shoaib will vie for the top honor in the Men’s Singles final of 36th Federal Cup National Ranking Tennis Championships, after winning his semifinals against Muzammil Murtaza with a score line 6-1 6-0, whereas second semi-final will be played tomorrow (Saturday) 6th January-2024 at 10:00 AM between Aqeel Khan and Mudassar Murtaza.
In the Ladies’ Singles event, unseeded Natalia Zaman from Karachi caused a major upset when she eliminated 4th seed Soha Ali in a thrilling three-set match 6-1 4-6 6-4 and moved to the semi-final to face top seed Sarah Mahboob Khan who conveniently won her encounter against Marrukh Sajid 6-0 6-1. Whereas Amna Ali Qayum beat Kainat Ali 6-0 6-0 and Sheeza Sajid won her match against Lalarukh Sajid 7-6(5) 6-4.
The best encounter of the day was played between Hamid Israr Khan and M. Hamza Aasim in the Junior 18&Under category. Top seed Hamid Israr struggled hard to win his match against talented upcoming youngster M.Hamza Aasim of Islamabad. In the first set, Both the players exhibited excellent game by hitting cross-court and down-the-line shots till the score reached 6 games all. The set was decided in the tiebreak, in which Hamid Israr changed the game plan and comfortably won the tiebreak 7-1. The second set was again marked in the same style and both the players demonstrated the high standard of the game of tennis. Hamid again changed the pace and strategy of the game plan, and managed to break the 9th game of Hamza to build up the winning lead 5-4 and kept the same pressure in the 10th game by hitting some excellent cross-court shots and won the match and set at 6-4, and qualified for the Final. The match lasted 1 hrs 40 minutes.
The second semi-final of Junior 18&U was played between Hamza Roman and Ahmad Nael Qureshi in which Hamza Roman faced some resistance to win his encounter in a straight set 7-5 6-4.
Following are the Results:
Men’s Singles Semi Final
Muhammad Shaoib beat Muzammil Murtaza 6-1 6-0.
Men’s Doubles Semi Final
Barkatullah / Yousaf Khalil Vs Abdullah Adnan / Mudassar Murtaza 6-4 6-2
Muzammil Murtaza / Muhammad Shoaib w/o Muhammad Abid / Ahmad Chaudhary
Ladies Singles (Quarter-Finals)
Sarah Mahboob Khan beat Marrukh Sajid 6-0 6-1, Natalia Zaman beat Soha Ali 6-1 4-6 6-4, Amna Ali Qayum beat Kainat Ali 6-0 6-0, Sheeza Sajid beat Lalarukh Sajid 7-6(5) 6-4.
Boys 18&U Singles (Semi-Finals)
Hamid Israr beat Muhammad Hamza Aasim 7-6(1) 4-1, Hamza Roman beat Ahmad Nael Qureshi 7-5 6-4.
Boys 14&U Singles (Semi-Finals)
Zohaib Afzal Malik beat Muhammad Junair Khan 4-0 4-1, M.Hussain Usmani beat Muhammad Shayyan 4-1 4-0.
Boys & Girls Singles (Quarter Finals)
Muhammad Ibrahim Hussain beat Azan Imran 4-1 4-0, Arsh Imran beat Salaar Khan 2-4 4-2 4-0, Amir Masood beat Umer Zaman 0-4 5-4(6) 4-1, Muhammad Faizan beat Behroze Umer 4-1 4-1.
