07/03/2022
Overview of DHA 59th National Badminton Championship 2022
In our opinion, this National championship was one of the best Championships in the history of Pakistan Badminton. The media coverage by Geo Super, Sports DHA Lahore and Sportsinfo.pk was phenomenal. Most of the matches were covered live and the advertisement all over the DHA through billboards was also a great step by DHA and PBF.
We saw many thrilling matches this year. In the first Round of Men’s Singles, Abdullah Latif was finally able to beat his rival Muqsit Islam in National Championship. Abuzar Rasheed had to play his opponent two times in the same tournament and had to work hard in both of them to claim the victory. He beat Uzair khan in both the Team event and individual category. Also, we saw Aoun Abbas getting back on track physically after he got injured in the National Championship 2019. He played Ali Mehdi in the first round and was able to produce was he is capable of. However, he could not grab the win.
In the 2nd Round, we saw Raza Ali taking Murad Ali to the decider. Ahmer Jalal was able to pull through the 2nd round this time by beating Amir saeed in a close 3 set match where Amir saeed was clearly not happy about his defeat. Ahmer being beaten by his juniors in the previous two tournaments was able to get the confidence to qualify for Pre Quarter finals this time. Moreover, Irfan Saeed once again proved his cleverness by not letting Raja Haider play his attacking style of play and turned around the match in the second half of the 2nd game and won the 3rd convincingly.
Talking about the Men’s Singles Semi finals: Larosh Ali could not convert 5 match points into his favour against Murad Ali and left heart broken after losing a thriller. In our opinion, it was the match of the tournament. Also, Muqeet Tahir did not let Irfan Saeed play his style of game and made this match one sided in his favour. Unfortunately, Irfan Saeed will have to wait another year to chase his dream of winning his maiden National Championship.
Men’s Singles Final was played against Murad Ali and Muqeet Tahir, where former National Champion once again clinched the National title. The youngster fought well in both the sets and tried hard to cover the lead from 11-3 to take the match in the decider, however, was unlucky losing the 2nd set 21-19. Close but yet so far for Muqeet Tahir.
Lastly, we missed our friend Ammar Masood in the National circuit. Our hero is on the way to his recovery from the knee injury. We wish him speedy recovery and look forward to watch him play in upcoming tournaments.
Furthermore, Mahoor Shahzad beat his opponents convincingly on her route to the Finals and stayed undefeated for the 6th consecutive time in the National Championships. She showed her class by winning the championship without having fully recovered from the hamstring injury she faced in the Ranking Championship 2021 in Charsada. She beat Palwasha Bashir in the finals. Talented Alja Tariq tried her level best to match the pace of the Olympian but she fell short and lost in the straight games in Semi Finals. Also, Ghazala Siddique tried her level best to reach the finals by beating Palwasha but had to settle for the semis this time.
Men’s Doubles category was full of new pairs. The young pair of Abuzar Rasheed and Yasir Ali pulled out an upset by beating the Former National Champions, Awais Zahid/ Larosh Ali, in the Quarter Finals. Moreover, Azeem Sarwar/ Murad Ali proved that they are still a good combo as they were before when they played together previously. Raja Brothers were the dominant force in this tournament, but looked a bit shaky in the first set of the finals till they saved game points in the first set. In the second set they did not give any chance to their opponents and clinched the National title together for the first time.
Talking about Women’s Doubles, Mahoor and Ghazala was able to beat Palwasha and Saima for the first time and became the National Champions of 2022.
Tariq sisters gave it a go in the Semi Finals against Mahoor/ Ghazala but could not do much to disturb the Champions.
