Aqeel made recovery to win title
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Top seed and national champion Aqeel Khan made grand recovery to thwart a strong challenge from Asim Shafiq 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 in the final of mens singles of tthe I.C Open National Ranking tennis championship here on Sunday at Bagh-e-Jinna courts.
In a 110 minutes thrilling encounter which produced best tennis from both the players,Aqeel remained focused even though in most tensed moments but survived due to his temperament and first time approach to avail the chances.
Asim failed to maintain his game he displayed in the first set as he lost the remaining set rather easily.Aqeel’s victory led him to a cash prize of Rs 50,000.
Both the players held their serve to be locked at 6-6 in the first set and entered the tie-breaker. Aqeel conceded first point due to a double fault and from thereon he could not be stabled. He looked somewhat confused when missed an easy volley shot as Asim raced to win tie-breaker after dropping only two points.
But there was a different story in the remaining two set as Aqeel had charged up to salvage the pride.Leading at 4-3, Aqeel managed to break Asim’s serve in the eighth game after a couple of deuces and then he held his own to win the set for 1-1 equaliser.
In the third set,though Aqeel was on song, Asim did efforts to make it thrilling one. Asim matched Aqeel till 4-4 by holding serves.
But the hot favourite Aqeel again succeeded to break Asim in the ninth game and then kept his own to finish the final on another winning note.
“The court was almost dead and I felt problems in hitting back hand shots but I was fully concentrated on my service and eventually won the final,” Aqeel said. Asim who received a cash prize of Rs 25,000 said he missed chances and could not win the match.
Sara Mehboob put up sterling performance and won two titles,first winning the ladies’ single title defeating Natasha Afridi 6-2, 6-2. Sara dominated in all departments of the game, giving no chance to Natasha to make any trouble for her in 25 minutes lasted final. Sara also won the Under-17 title, defeating Saba Aziz 7-5, 6-3.
Shan Bokhari crushed Waqas Malik 6-1, 6-1 to win the boys U-15 final.Zubair Raza emerged as Under-13 champion, carving out a hard fought win against Abid Ali in three set final.
Zubair claimed victory with the scoreline 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.Rao Iftikhar and Zahid Zafar crowned with seniors’ double title defeating the pair of Khalid Ikram and Ahsan Naz 6-4, 6-4.