Top seeds Aqeel Khan, Muzammil Murtaza, M Abid, Shahzad Khan and others reached the second round of the 5th Shehryar Malik Memorial National Grass Court Tennis Championship 2021, after winning their respective first round matches played at the Punjab Tennis Academy, Bagh-e-Jinnah.
In the first round matches, Pakistan’s longest serving No 1 player Aqeel Khan took little time to outpace Parbhat Kumar 6-0, 6-2. Muzamil Murtaza, who defeated national tennis champion Aqeel Khan in the recently-concluded Desom Tennis Championship 2021, continued his good show and defeated emerging player Abdul Hanan 6-3, 6-2 while M Abid comfortably beat Imran Bhatti of Lahore Gymkhana with a score of 6-0, 6-4.
Another Pakistan Davis Cup player Shehzad Khan also took very little time to outclass young M. Huzaifa Khan 6-1, 6-1 while Mudassar Murtaza trounced Saqib Hayyat 6-1, 6-1, Faizan Khurram fought well against Hassam Khan and outsmarted him by 6-1, 6-4, Yousaf Khalil had to struggle hard to beat Waqas Malik 6-3, 7-6 (5) and M. Shoaib played tremendous tennis against Barkat Ullah and toppled him by 6-1, 6-2.
In the Ladies singles second round, Pakistan No 1 ladies tennis player Sara Mehboob Khan, who made a comeback to the Pakistan tennis circuit after getting married, once again showed glimpses of her superb tennis and outclassed young Fajar Masood by 6-0, 6-0. Pakistan Fed Cup player Mehak Khokar got walk over against Ashtafila Arif while Rahat Javed beat Kainat Ali by 6-1, 6-1 while, Noor Saad played well against Nida Akram and overpowered her by 6-0, 6-1 and Asfa Shahbaz fought well against Mariyam Mirza and trounced her by 6-1, 6-1.
In the Boys U-18 first round matches, Faizan Fayyaz beat Waqas Aslam 6-0, 6-1, Hasheesh Kumar beat Hassam Khan 6-1, 6-2, Abdullah Adnan beat Abdul Hanan Khan 6-1, 6-4, Mahatir Muhammad beat Haider Ali Rizwan 6-2, 6-2, Bakir Ali beat Husnain Ali 6-0, 6-0, Semi Zeb beat Arman Kamran 6-2, 6-0 and Ahmad Nael beat Ibrahim Suleman 6-0, 6-0.
In the U-14 second round matches, Hamza Ali Rizwan beat Abdullah Pirzada 4-0, 4-1, Hussnain Ali Rizwan beat Zohaib Afzal Malik 4-0, 4-1 and Nabeel Ali Qayyum beat Hashir Alam 4-1, 4-2. In the U-12 first round matches, Afaf Suleman beat Shafy Iqbal 4-1, 4-1 and M Umar beat Zunaisha Noor 4-1, 4-2.
