KARACHI, Nov 20: Pakistan's sorry plight in international squash continues unabated as not a single player from the country has managed to earn a direct entry in the main rounds of the World Open Squash Championship starting in Doha, Qatar, next week.

According to the draws of what is the biggest event on the World Squash Tour, even Pakistan No. 1 Mansoor Zaman has failed to earn an automatic berth in the 32-man main rounds draws of the US$120,000 championship to be played from Nov 27 to Dec 3.

Mansoor, Pakistan's highest-ranked player on the World Tour, slipped out of the top twenty club earlier this year and is currently languishing at No. 26 in the latest world rankings issued by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) earlier this month.

The former Asian junior champion, son of ex-British Open Qamar Zaman, will have to go through the qualifying rounds in his quest for a main round slot.

The two-day qualifying rounds will be played on Nov 27-28.

The main rounds will be held from Nov 29 to Dec 3. Two of Mansoor's younger cousins, Shahid and Farrukh Zaman will also compete in the qualifying competition.

Given under is the list of players for the qualifying rounds:

Alex Gough (Wal), Wael El Hindi (Egy), Azlan Iskandar (Mas), Mansoor Zaman (Pak), Rodney Durbach (Rsa), Shahier Razik (Can), Peter Barker (Eng), Tommy Berden (Ned), Borja Golan (Esp), Hisham Mohd Ashour (Egy), Cameron Pilley (Aus), Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned), Joey Barrington (Eng), Bradley Ball (Eng), Jan Koukal (Cze), Jonathan Kemp (Eng), Shahid Zaman (Pak), Gavin Jones (Wal), Mohammed Essam A Hafiz (Egy), Ben Garner (Eng), Alister Walker (Eng), John Rooney (Irl), Jean-Michel-Arcucci (Fra), Liam Kenny (Irl), Lee Drew (Eng), Philip Barker (Eng), Alex Stait (Eng), Stephane Galifi (Fra), Glenn Keenan (Aus), Farrukh Zaman (Pak).-PPI