Festival tennis winners honoured

Abu Dhabi: Fourth seed Amir Ghaniem of Egypt won the men's singles tennis title while Fatima Al Nabhani of Oman wore the women's crown in the 12th Ramadan Open Sports Festival at the Armed Forces Officers Club (AFOC) here on Sunday night.

While Ghaniem scored a 6-4, 7-5 defeat to the third seed Try Gilham of Australia the women's second seed Fatima Al Nabhani won by default as top seed Lima Al Sa'adi pulled out of the final due to an injury.

Captain Musabbah Al Ka'abi, General Coordinator of the tournament, gave away the trophies in a ceremony attended by a number of festival officials.

Meanwhile Lieutenant General Mohammad Hilal Surour Al Ka'abi (Retd.), AFOC Board Chairman and Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee of the 12th open sports festival inaugurated the women's volleyball championship.

Seven teams including the Al Jazira Club (Abu Dhabi), Al Ahli and Al Shabab Clubs (Dubai), in addition to the national teams of Egypt, the Philippines and Oman are taking part in the event with Sudan being a last minute withdrawal.

Inaugural match

In the inaugural match, Egypt's Horse team scored a 25-11, 25-9 win over the AC Spikers of the Philippines. In the second match Dubai's Al Ahli registered a 25-5, 25-9 win over Oman's national team.

At the end of the third round in chess, sixteen players with three points share the lead. They include Ahmad Adli of Egypt and Abdullah Al Ka'abi (the UAE).

In the women's category three players with three points each top the list at the end of round three.

With the men's amateur bowling championship now entering its advanced stage, Hashim Abubakar leads the pack while Abdullah Kazim is close on his heels as Khamis Al Hosani and Saeed Al Amiri trail them respectively.

Ahmad Shames Al Zarouni, Faisal Mohammad Al Lukiti, Mohammad Fairuz Al Hossani and Hassan Ali Al Shatiri have advanced to the next stage in the PlayStation competitions which is also being held as part of the Dh14 million annual event.

Meanwhile in football action, the UNIX versus National Transport match saw tempers fray with three red cards. Although the match ended with a 1-1 draw, Kamal Adil and Sabri Rif'at (UNIX) and Ali Farou (National Transport) were sent off.

According to a press release, defending champions, NDC, continued their winning spree by defeating PhoneSat 4-1, Ground Forces whitewashed Andaleeb 7-0, GASCO beat Abu Dhabi University 4-0, Al Rabea of Algeria registered a 3-1 win against Suqourul Emarat while Hamad Construction lost 0-11 to the Istishariyya Group. Al Ankabout also thrashed The Stars 7-1, the Capital Police trounced Dunlop 10-0, Shawamekh defeated Daman 3-0, while the Al Nuaimi Group struggled to beat Esnaad 4-2.