23-year-old Haisham Ibrahim Ali has been crowned the men’s singles champion at the 50th National Badminton Tournament.

In the first national badminton tournament held in three years, Haisham won the men’s singles title by defeating his fellow Revival SC teammate Nibal Ahmed in the men’s singles final, played this evening at Male’ Kulhivaru Ekuveni arena.

The 23-year-old, who is currently ranked 1039th in the world, defeated Nibal, who is about 500 ranks above, by two sets to one.

Haisham started the final with a  hard-fought win in the first set, played beyond the game-point and ended 17-15 in his favor. Second set was a closely fought half-way through, but Nibal scored seven points in succession to take big lead, eventually taking the game to a final set with an 8-15 victory.

 Nibal started the final set on the front foot, but Haisham took back the lead, keeping a two or three point lead through to end and winning it 15-12.

Haisham made his way to the final by defeating the defending champion and Maldives number one player, Zayan Zaki with an impressive 15-6, 11-15, 15-4 scoreline. Nibal reached the final after defeating Hassan Zayan Mohamed by 16-14, 15-10 in the semifinals. 

With all four semifinalists of the men’s singles being players of Revival Sports, the club stated on its website that it is “one of the clearest demonstrations yet of the club’s growing dominance in the country’s senior men’s singles competition”.

Nibal also won the men’s doubles title alongside Zayan Zaki. In fact, the finals of all five events in the national tournament have seen players from the same club – Revival Sports.

The women’s singles final saw Nabaha Abdhul Razzaq take back the title, defeating the previous champion Nabeeha Abdhul Razzaq by straight two sets; 15-6 and 15-12.

Both the men’s doubles and the women’s doubles were comfortable victories for the higher seeded pairs.  Zayan Zaki and Nibal Ahmed defeated Haisham and Mohamed Khalaf Imraan 15-7, 15-7 in the men’s final, whereas Nabaha and Nabeeha won the women’s final by 15-4, 15-5 over Maisa Fathuhulla and Aishath Afnaan Rasheed.