LAHORE, April 29: Four players including three Pakistani and an Egyptian have qualified for the main round of the Pak Telecom International squash championship at the end of the two- day qualifying round at the Punjab Squash Complex on Tuesday.
Hesham M Ashour of Egypt, the lone foreigners who took part in the qualifying round booked a place in the main round after beating Majid Khan of Pakistan 3-1 (15-12, 13-15, 15-6, 15-12). Ashour took 42 minutes to settle the issue despite Majid fought in the second game to clinch it 15-13.
National junior champion Safeer Khan also entered the main round, defeating Zubair Ali Khan in 21 minutes long battle 15-8, 15-6, 15-9.
Arshad Iqbal Burki struggled for 69 minutes to eliminate the challenge from the giant-killer Naveed Atlas 12-15, 15-8, 15-13, 15-11. Naveed who had registered a big upset on Monday beating World No 103 Khayal Mohammad had challenged Arshad by winning the first game.
Aijaz Azmat also survived some anxious moments before beating the Pakistan Junior No. 2 Yasir Butt 15-13, 12-15, 15-4, 15-6.
The main round of 16-man draw begins from Wednesday.
According to the draws, the top seed Karim Darwish of Egypt will play the opening match against Azlan Iskandar (Malaysia) at 11am.
The others participating in the main round are Adrian Grant (England), Omar Elborolossy (Egypt), Dan Jenson (Australia), Amar Shabana (Egypt), Mohammad Abbas (Egypt), Wael El Hindi (Egypt), Mansoor Zaman (Pak), Farrukh Zaman (Pak), Shahid Zaman (Pak) and wild card Saeed Hassan.
