Zahra Dental Clinic RD1: Fard and Sharifian Cause Upsets

The Iranian duo of Faryad Sharifian and Pouya Shafii Fard both caused upsets on the opening day of the Zahra Dental Clinic in Tehran, beating seeded players to make it into the last eight of the competition.

Sharifian came up against No.6 seed Sahand Kabiri in his first round contest, and after a second game tie-break, which his opponent took 14-12, the pair were level at one game apiece. However, Sharifian was able to regroup, and he went on to win 3-1, to set up a quarter final contest with No.2 seed Mohammad Kashani.

Fard took on No.8 seed Ali Taj in his opening match of the competition, and needed no time at all to cause the upset, dropping just 13 points across three games, winning 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 to advance to the last eight.

The quarter finals of the Challenger 3 level tournament take place on Monday, March 7, with the winners advancing to the semi-finals of the competition.

First Round Results: Zahra Dental Clinic
[1] Alireza Shameli (IRI) bt Danial Gharooni (IRI) 3-1: 11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 11-8 (42m)
[5] Soheil Shameli (IRI) bt Amirhossein Sadeghkhani (IRI) 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-4 (16m)
Pouya Shafii Fard (IRI) bt [8] Ali Taj (IRI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 (18m)
[3] Sepehr Etemadpoor (IRI) bt Nima Shamisa (IRI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-9, 11-7 (19m)
[4] Sami Ghasedabadi (IRI) bt Alireza Riaz (IRI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 (18m)
[7] Aryan Etemadi (IRI) bt Pouria Arbasi (IRI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-5 (14m)
Faryad Sharifian (IRI) bt [6] Sahand Kabiri (IRI) 3-1: 11-4, 12-14, 11-7, 11-5 (34m)
[2] Mohammad Kashani (IRI) bt Mohammad Khani (IRI) 3-1: 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3 (31m)

Quarter Final Draw: To Be Played Monday, March 7
[1] Alireza Shameli (IRI) v [5] Soheil Shameli (IRI)
Pouya Shafii Fard (IRI) v [3] Sepehr Etemadpoor (IRI)
[4] Sami Ghasedabadi (IRI) v [7] Aryan Etemadi (IRI)
Faryad Sharifian (IRI) v [2] Mohammad Kashani (IRI)