Ali Sheriff keeps hopes alive in qualifying

Ali Sheriff is the lone UAE national player surviving in the qualifying rounds of the 12th Aviation Cup tennis tournament being held at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.

Sheriff slugged it out till the end with Lebanese player Louis Baz to eventually scrap through 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) to set a meeting against second seed Essam Abdulaal of Bahrain.

This was a match which went to the wire as both players refused to hand over the advantage to each other. In the decisive tie-break, Sheriff showed better consistency and temperament to win 8-6 in the first set and wrap it up 7-5 in the next.

His four other UAE teammates had made an early exit in the opening round of the qualifying on Wednesday.

UAE-based player Pravin Anthony showed good form winning 6-3, 6-2 over Iran's Raham Dabiri, while Michael Maksoudian, another Lebanese player based in the UAE, had everything going his way as his opponent Hicham Bramly - the UAE national coach for juniors - retiring after trailing 2-6, 0-4. Anthony will now play top seed in the qualifiers, Sander Groen in an attempt to make it to the main stage of the competition.

Dutch player Pieter Stoffers went down 1-6, 3-6 to Alok Shankar of India, while Wael Chemi of Syria had an easy outing against India's Xerxes Behram, winning 6-2, 6-3. Chemi will now meet third seed Mudruk Rawahy of Oman in the next round of the qualifiers.

Neil Bulilan will clash with fourth seed Mohammed Al Kuwari of Qatar after his 6-1, 6-0 trouncing of India S Hemanth.

The draws for the main competition will be held at the Dubai Tennis Stadium today, while the actual competition will commence on Sunday.

The tournament, which has been sponsored by Dubai Duty Free, has a total prizemoney of Dh 74,000.

Results qualifying rounds:

Pravin Anthony bt Raham Dabiri 6-3, 6-2; Michael Maksoudian bt Hicham Bramly 6-2, 4-0 (retd.); Tariq Khan bt Marat Subkhankulov 6-1, 6-1; Salavat Bayburin w/o Daroush Nouri; Neil Bulilan bt S Hemanth 6-1, 6-0; Kevoru Tchaparian bt Yvan Jacqueline 6-0, 6-1; Attia Bayoumi bt Navin Anthony 6-0, 6-2; Wael Chemi bt Xerxes Behram 6-2, 6-3; Remy Bouyer w/o Eddie Gayon; Alok Shankar bt Pieter Stoffers 6-1, 6-3; Ali Sheriff bt Louis Baz 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5).

Draw for today: (At 3 pm) S Groen or P Anthony v R Lucas or K Al Thawadi; Abdulaal or Ali Sheriff v M Maksoudian or E Gottschalk; M Al Rawahi or W Chemi v Babuyan or D Haddad. (At 4.30 pm) M Al Kuwary or N Bulilan v Adeeb Maliakaal; O Ahmed or Y Jacqueline v A Bayoumi or K Hashemian; A Ibrahim or Tariq Khan v A Khavani or A Shahgoli; M Abdul Latif or Remy Bouyer v J Poon or J Danican; S Akbar or Shankar v V Das or Y Abdul Nabil.