KARACHI, Sept 20: Punjab’s Yasir Butt extended PAF’s Bilal Zaman to the limit on the opening day in the pre-qualifying round of the CNS international squash championship at the Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan complex Friday.

Bilal appeared to have the match in the bag as he headed for a comfortable victory by capturing the hard-fought first two games at 15-13 and 17-16.

Nevertheless, Yasir made a stunning comeback by snatching the next two games 15-7 and 17-16 to level the match 2-all. However, in the process, Yasir ran out of steam in the decider which he lost 15-5 in less than seven minutes to lose the match in 57 minutes.

In an another match that went full distances, Rizwan Ahmed from Balochistan came back from one game down to overpower Mohammad Qasim from Sindh 17-15 5-15 9-15 15-10, 15-6 in 58 minutes.

Around 30 players (12 from Sindh, three from NWFP, four from Balochistan, seven from Punjab and four from PAF) are appearing in the qualifying event for the $25,000 main event.

Four from the pre-qualifiers will earn participation in the final round that begins Sept 23. Karim Darwaish, who is the top seed, is one of the five Egyptians and an Australian have confirmed participation in the main round.