LAHORE, May 6: All seeded players including Mansoor Zaman, Shahid Zaman, Furrukh Zaman and Majid Khan cruised into the semifinals of the International squash tournament at the Punjab Squash Complex on Thursday.
Top seed Mansoor, World No 19, earned a straight game win over Khalid Atlas Khan. Mansoor, remained in the court for only 39 minutes to beat Khalid in the shortest quarterfinal of the day 17-16, 15-8, 15-13. Mansoor faced a tough time from Khalid in the first game as the latter led 12-10 at one stage.
Mansoor recovered and the two were tied at 14-all. However, Mansoor used his experience to first reach 17 and booked a place in the last four.
Shahid started his campaign against Arshad Iqbal Burki on a wrong foot but recovered to win 11-15, 15-4, 15-12, 15-7 in 44 minutes. Arshad, who had stunned experts by reaching the second round of the World Open held in Lahore last year with Mansoor took full advantage of Shahid's erratic hitting to win the first game 15-11.
Shahid hit the board on seven occasions while Arshad struck twice only. Shahid led 8-6 but Arshad hit back to make it 8-all and the two were level again at 10-10. From there onwards Arshad led as Shahid hit the tin four times.
Shahid was more aggressive in the second game and after levellin 3-all, he lost only a point to wrap up the match. Majid Khan proved too good for Shamsul Islam before winning 15-11, 15-7, 10-15, 15-4 in 48 minutes. Shams won the third game but lost the three games quite easily.
Farrukh Zaman ousted Naveed Atlas 11-15, 15-13, 15-3,15-7.
Results:
Majid Khan bt Shamsul Islam 15-11, 15-7, 10-15, 15-4; Mansoor Zaman bt Khalid Atlas Khan 17-16, 15-8, 15-13; Farrukh Zaman bt Naveed Atlas 11-15, 15-13, 15-3, 15-7; Shahid Zaman bt Arshad Iqbal Burki 11-15, 15-4, 15-12, 15-7.
Today's semifinals: Farrukh Zaman vs Shahid Zaman at 2.45pm; Majid Khan vs Mansoor Zaman at 4pm.
