KARACHI, Nov 12: England's Adrian Grant, the World No.13 is top seeded in the fifth Chief Of Naval Staff (CNS) International squash championship , which begins from Nov 18 with the pre-qualifying rounds and the final to be held on Nov 25, at the Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan squash complex.

This was disclosed by the tournament director Cdr M.B. Choudhry at a press conference held on Friday at the PN RKJK Squash Complex. He said last year's champion and world No.11 Gregory Gaultier from France would be missing from this tournament.

The top seed Grant lost to Gaultier 15-5, 15-11, 15-9 in the semifinal last year. Seeded at No.2 is Graham Ryding (Canada) world No.13 with Malaysia's Ong Beng He with a world ranking of No.22 the third seed. World No.24 Davide Bianchetti (Italy) is the No.4 seed, with Wael El Hindh (Egypt) world No.27 as the fifth seed.

Pakistan's Mansoor Zaman, who lost in last year's final to Gaultier in five gruelling games 15-9, 14-15, 5-15, 15-10 and 15-13 seeded No.29 in the world is the sixth seed. Followed by Shamier Razik (Canada) No.7, Borja Golan (Spain) No.8, Hisham M. Ashour (Egypt) No.9, Bradley Ball (England) No.10, Shahid Zaman (Pakistan) world No.44 the No.11 seed and Amir Atlas Khan (Pakistan) 12th seed.

The CNS Championship will be carrying a prize purse of US$ 25,000. The winner of the tournament will receive US$4180 and the runner-up will go home richer by US$ 2260.

Cdr. Choudry disclosed that the Pakistan Navy has contributed towards the prize money, boarding lodging of players and accompanying officials, along with repair, maintenance and operations of the court at the venue to bring it at par with the international standards for the event and promotion of the game.

He said that for the very first time in Pakistan, a game will now consist of 11 points instead of the previous American system of 15 points. The organising secretary, Lt. Cdr. Shahzad A. Noor, said that the pre-qualifying rounds will be held on Nov 18 and 19, with the qualifying rounds to be held on Nov 20 and 21.

Eleven Pakistanis and one Australian Bradley Hindle, will play in qualifying rounds. Besides, 22 departmental players and 10 players from the Sindh Squash Association (SSA), will also be participating in the pre-quarterfinal rounds.