
Selection of parents based on their combining ability is an important approach in hybrid breeding programs. In this study, nine inbred lines were used to obtain 36 crosses (direct cross without parents) for analyzing the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) for six agronomic and fruit characters including vigor of plant (VoP), pedicel length (PeL), pericarp thickness (PT), fruit length (FL), fruit diameter (FD), single fruit weight (SFW) and Fruit yield per plant (FY). The results showed that GCA was significantly different among parents for all of evaluated traits and SCA was also significantly different among crosses for all traits except vigor of plant. P165, P102-2, P103-1, P174-2, P188-3, P209-2 and P213-1 were excellent parents with greater general combining ability for various characteristics. Five crosses P174-2×P209-2, P102-2×P102-3, P209-2×213-1, P188-3×P174-2 and P102-3×P103-1 showed high SCA effect value for different characters. It also revealed that there is an inconsistent relationship between GCA and SCA effects suggesting that parents’ selection for further breeding program should be based on GCA effects.