{"id":34992,"date":"2026-01-07T15:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34992"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:04:16","slug":"top-seeds-shine-at-national-ranking-tennis-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34992","title":{"rendered":"Top seeds shine at national ranking tennis tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Muzammil Murtaza captured the men\u2019s singles title while Maheen Aftab Qureshi secured the women\u2019s crown at the 11th Begum Kulsoom Saifullah Khan National Ranking Tennis Championship, as the tournament concluded at the PTF Tennis Complex in Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>Murtaza defeated veteran Aqeel Khan in the men\u2019s singles final, while Qureshi beat Soha Ali to claim the women\u2019s title. The national-ranking event featured around 250 players from across Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>In the men\u2019s doubles final, Ahmed Nail Qureshi and Abubakar Talha claimed the title after defeating Barkatullah and Yousuf Khalil. Hamza Roman won the boys\u2019 under-18 title with a victory over Abubakar Talha, while Muhammad Junaid secured the boys\u2019 under-14 crown by beating Muhammad Muaz.<\/p>\n<p>The girls\u2019 under-14 title was claimed by Aiman Rehan, who defeated Khadija Khalil in the final, while Muhammad Farhan lifted the boys\u2019 under-12 trophy after beating Muhammad Daniyal.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Minister for Housing Riaz Hussain Pirzada attended the closing ceremony as chief guest and distributed prizes alongside Pakistan Tennis Federation patron-in-chief Saleem Saifullah Khan and the Ambassador of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe promotion of tennis in Pakistan has benefited greatly from the Saifullah Khan family,\u201d Pirzada said. \u201cPlayers like Aqeel Khan, who have served the country for decades, deserve greater recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saleem Saifullah Khan highlighted Aqeel Khan\u2019s contribution to the sport, saying, \u201cAqeel has represented Pakistan in 60 Davis Cup ties and remains one of the country\u2019s finest players. The government and the ITF should honour him for his services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the tournament, named after his mother, continues to grow in stature. \u201cAround 250 players took part this year, which reflects the rising interest in tennis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Saleem Saifullah Khan also confirmed that Pakistan is set to host Senegal in a Davis Cup tie in February following the construction of a grass court in Islamabad. \u201cThe grass court was built with the support of Riaz Hussain Pirzada to meet international standards,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Muzammil Murtaza captured the men\u2019s singles title while Maheen Aftab Qureshi secured the women\u2019s crown at the 11th Begum Kulsoom Saifullah Khan National Ranking Tennis Championship, as the tournament concluded at the PTF Tennis Complex in Islamabad. Murtaza defeated veteran Aqeel Khan in the men\u2019s singles final, while Qureshi beat Soha Ali to claim the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}