LAHORE: Pakistan\u2019s Abubakar Talha and Russia\u2019s Varvara Rubtsova completed memorable title runs by winning the U-18 singles and doubles crowns in their respective categories as the ITF J-30 Lahore Ali Embroidery Mills International Junior Tennis Championship 2026 concluded at Aitchison College.<\/p>\n
The event marked the return of international junior tennis to Lahore after 25 years.<\/p>\n
In the boys\u2019 singles final, played between two Pakistani players, Abubakar defeated Hassan Usmani 7-6(7-5), 6-0. After edging a tight first set, Abubakar took control of the second to seal the title in convincing fashion.<\/p>\n
Hassan\u2019s run to the final was also significant as he reached his first international junior final, highlighting the progress being made by Pakistan\u2019s young tennis players.<\/p>\n
Abubakar later added the boys\u2019 doubles title to his singles crown. He partnered Hamza Roman to beat Ahtesham Humayun and Amir Mazari 6-3, 6-2 in the final.<\/p>\n
In the girls\u2019 singles final, Rubtsova produced a strong performance against fellow Russian Stefaniila Vasilevskaia, winning 6-2, 6-2 to claim the title. She then completed her double in the girls\u2019 doubles event, where she teamed up with Evelina Dzepa to defeat Daixi Hu and Bismel Zia 6-0, 6-0.<\/p>\n
Ali Embroidery Mills Chief Executive Officer Tariq Zaman was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony. Pakistan Tennis Federation President Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, former Punjab sports secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman, Col (R) Asif Dar, Aitchison College Director of Sports Sajjad Rasool, Haider Ismail from USA, Naseem Ahmed and Said Hassan were also among the distinguished guests, along with players, officials and members of the tennis fraternity.<\/p>\n
The championship was organised by the Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) with the support of Ali Embroidery Mills. More than 42 players from China, Kazakhstan, Australia, Russia, Bangladesh and other countries took part in the tournament.<\/p>\n
The presence of international players gave Pakistani juniors an opportunity to compete against foreign opponents, gain useful match exposure and earn ranking points.<\/p>\n
PLTA Senior Executive Vice-President Rashid Malik, who has been awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, thanked the sponsors, institutions and officials for their role in successfully holding the championship. He especially acknowledged Tariq Zaman for sponsoring the tournament and supporting junior tennis development in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Malik also praised Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi for his leadership and support in helping bring international junior tennis back to Lahore. He said the staging of back-to-back international tournaments, including ITF junior, Futures and women\u2019s events, was a positive sign for Pakistan tennis and would help local players raise their standards and improve their international rankings.<\/p>\n
He further thanked PLTA President Capt (R) Fazeel Asghar and the association\u2019s management, besides the Punjab government and Sports Board Punjab, for their support in promoting tennis. Malik also appreciated Aitchison College and its Principal Dr S. M. Turab Hussain for providing excellent facilities, hospitality and cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan\u2019s Abubakar Talha and Russia\u2019s Varvara Rubtsova won singles and doubles titles as the ITF J-30 Lahore event concluded at Aitchison College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}