Pakistan Davis Cupper Samir Iftikhar beat 7th seed ATP heavyweight Nicholas Jones from Great Britain in a three-set marathon with scores of 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to reach last 8 of Aegon British Tour Cardif Championships being held at Welsh Tennis Center Cardif UK from May 23 to 27.
He will now meet number 4 seed ATP ranked James Ireland from Great Britain in the quarter-finals today. However is Friday’s game lasted for over three hours and was watched by a large crowd at the center court. Samir is playing the Aegon British tour Circuit in UK from May to July to enable him to compete the ATP Professional Circuit. The long duration of the match attracted a large crowd in which Samir exhibited remarkable fighting qualities, fitness and court craft by coming back one set down to win the second set at 6-3. He trailed 2-5 in the final set and broke the British Nicholas twice with display of powerful passing shots and serves to win five games in a row to stun Nicholas 7-5.
The dual British-Pakistan national, Samir who opted to play for Pakistan, is the son of former Pakistan Davis Cupper Tayyab Iftikhar. He as junior was the only player from the country after Aisamul Haq to win four ITF Junior World Ranking events.
He is currenly on a four-year athletic scholarship in USA where he had splendid season at NCAA Intervarsity Tennis Circuit which finished last month.
