Veteran Malik upsets Bilal in Sheheryar National Tennis

LAHORE: Veteran Rashid Malik, a former Davis Cupper and ex- Pakistan No 1, entered the main draw after he upset young Mian Bilal in a an interesting contest in the 3rd Sheheryar Malik Memorial National Grass Court Tennis Championship 2019 at the Bah-i-Jinnah courts on Tuesday.

The audience enjoyed a lot while watching old champion in action with great winning instinct against half of his age opponent Mian Bilal. Although Malik’s serve got broken during the first set yet he broke back his opponent’s serve and started dominating the first set with the execution of lethal backhand shots. In the first set, strong net game was also witnessed as the first set ended at 6-3 in favour of Rashid Malik.

In second Malik was even more stable right from the beginning of the set. He was leading 5 games to 1. However Bilal managed to take couple of more games but Malik repeated the strategy and finally excellent net game helped Malik emerge victorious 6-3,6-3.

Earlier qualifying matches in men’s singles category were played in the morning session in which eight players qualified for the main draw. All the seeded players had no difficulty in winning their matches in straight sets. Defending champion Aqeel Khan, second seed Muzammil Murtaza and M. Muddasir had comfortable victories over their first round opponents.