JEDDAH, 14 March 2003 — LG Table Tennis Tournament witnessed some classy performance last Friday at Al-Hamra Sofitel Hotel, Jeddah. Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals were played and at the end of Doubles Competition, Tokio Marines team emerged as the champion.
The first set of quarterfinals was played between IAP and Bajaba Electronics, which was easily won by Bajaba. Mansoor Abdul Rehman and Suleman of Bajaba beat Absar Hussein and Shah Alam of IAP, in straight games of 21-16, 21-16.
In the second quarterfinals, Al-Swaidi Industries played against Tokio Marines and lost in two straight games. Tokio Marines’ Imran and Shahid played superbly to defeat Archer and Raul of Al-Swaidi with a score of 21-16, 21-13. The third quarterfinals was played between DHL and Juffali Printing Systems Team One. Gamini and Asif Rasheed of DHL started well but later lost to Juffali’s Asadullah Ghalib and Riaz Jumaa. The Juffali pair won in two straight games of 21-15, 21-10. The last quarterfinal between Al-Hamrani Fuchs Petroleum and Juffali Printing Systems Team Two saw Faheem Khan and Bashar of Juffali Printing play aggressively. The Juffali tandem won in two games against one. The score was 21-14, 21-11 and 24-22.
In the semifinals Bajaba played against Tokio Marines and lost two games against one. The second set of semifinals was played between Juffali Printing Team One and Team Two, in which Team One won against Team Two, winning two games against one. The score was 21-13, 18-21 and 22-20.
In the final between Juffali Team One and Tokio Marines, the latter made a strong comeback after losing the first game at a margin of 21-11. Imran and Shahid of Tokio Marines maintained calm and played aggressively.
Some fine shots were played and the next two games were won by Tokio Marines. Imran’s top spin service played an important role in getting to the top of the LG Table Tennis Doubles. Next two weeks will determine the singles champion.
