Sara Mehboob, Ushna win one-sided openers in tennis tourney

Two players of the top quartet – second seed Sara Mehboob and third seed Ushna Suhail – stormed into the women’s singles last four as the second Modern Club Founder Members Tennis Championship commenced at their own courts on Thursday.

The women’s singles matches were not on card for the opening day but the organisers rescheduled the fixtures and plan to complete their matches by Saturday as Pakistan Fed Cup team is due to fly to Bangkok the same night.

Unfortunately, both the women’s first round matches turned out to be completely one-sided affair as the seeded players faced no opposition at all. While Sara Mehboob outplayed Erij Batool Zaidi 6-1, 6-0 Ushna made a 6-0, 6-0 short work of qualifier Apsra Sheeraz.

Earlier, Apsra had defeated Farah Riaz 8-0 in the only qualifying round match.

Participation of seven women’s, including four from the upcountry besides a qualifier in one of the richest event of the game, has left much to be desired.

Meanwhile, seven qualifiers are expected to complete the men’s singles draw of 32.

Results:

Men’s singles qualifying round one:

Wasel Raza bt Shahrukh Mohsin (walkover); Shoaib Abbas bt Hammad-ul-Hassan 8-3; Anabvek Anwar bt Khalid Hassan 8-0; Azher Katchi bt Abid Baloch 8-2; Usman Akram bt Saad Ahmed 8-6; AamirTunio bt Asif Bachani (walkover); Bilal Khan bt Veqas Kumer Norlani 8-1; Sheeraz Bhand bt Shiraz Khan 8-2; Noman Fareed bt Ahmed Hassan 8-0.

Ladies singles quilifying round:

Apsra Shiraz bt Farah Riaz 8-0.

First round:

Sara Mehboob bt Syeda Erij Batool Zaidi 6-1, 6-0; Ushna Suhail bt Apsra Sheeraz 6-0, 6-0; Mahak Khokhar bt Rida Khan 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Friday’s fixtures:

Men’s singles at 10am; under-18 singles at 1pm; under-16 singles at 3pm; under-14 singles and ladies singles semi-finals at 4pm; 35 plus doubles, under-12 singles and men’s doubles qualifying round at 5pm.

(Source: Dawn News)