SARAH, ANI ENTER FUJAIRAH SEMIFINALS

The News International
Jan 23 2009
Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Sarah Mahboob Khan and her partner from Armenia Ani
Amiraghyan marched into the semifinals of the girls doubles by
upsetting the third seeds of the tournament, Laura Deigman (Great
Britain)/Veruska Monique Van Wyk (South Africa), in straight sets 6-3,
6-4 in Fujairah (UAE) circuit.

In the semifinal, they will meet and play against the top seeds Noor
Abbes and Ons Jabeur, both of Tunisia.

In the singles, however, it wasn’t a good day for the Pakistani
players. In the girls singles pre-quarter-final, Sarah Mahboob Khan
played a magnificent four hours marathon match against Panoria Tsekoura
(Greece) but lost the cliff hanger in a tough three sets 5-7, 6-2, 4-6.

A couple of unforced errors by Sarah in the first and the last sets
and the same number of lucky shots by Panoria turned the match in
favour of the Greek.

Second seed Natasha Afridi also lost a well contested match to Aarzoo
Malik (India) 2-6, 5-7.

In the boys singles competition, Waqas Mallak (Pak) lost to Alp
Golcuklu (Turkey) 5-7, 2-6, but with partner Vishwesh Sinha (India)
beat Khaled Al Hassani/Faisal Bastaki (UAE) 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 (super
tie-break) and qualified for the boys doubles semifinals.