LAHORE: Except fourth seed Danish Atlas Khan, all top three seeds — Nasir Iqbal, Aamir Atlas Khan and Farhan Zaman — qualified for the International Squash Championship semi-finals at the Punjab Squash Complex here on Saturday.

In a one-sided quarter-final, Farhan Mehboob shocked Danish who completely lost his composure, and could resist Farhan for just 28 minutes before losing the match 7-11, 3-11, 12-14.

After losing the first two games, Danish tried to stage a comeback in the third. Once Danish was leading 8-7 but Farhan, who had a strong forehand, took full advantage of the unforced errors made by Danish to move ahead 10-8.

Danish again tried and made it 12-all, but his all efforts to stop his rival from gaining two match winners went in vain.

Meanwhile, top seed Nasir had an easy sailing in his quarter-final toppling fifth seed Tayyab Aslam 13-11, 11-2, 11-9 in a 46-minute battle. Nasir remained ahead in all the three games as Tayyab was throughout left struggling.

In another quarter-final, second seed Aamir Atlas was stretched to five games by Israr Ahmed before the former won the 41-minute tussle 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-2.

After both the players won two games apiece, Aamir showed his true class in the decisive game as he dropped only two points to book his place in the semi-final.

In the fourth last-eight clash, third seed Farhan did not give any chance to eighth seed Mohammad Yousuf as the former drafted an easy 11-8, 11-7, 12-10 victory in 32 minutes.

Results:

Quarter-finals: Nasir Iqbal bt Tayyab Aslam 13-11, 11-2, 11-9; Farhan Zaman bt Mohammad S. Yousuf 11-8, 11-7, 12-10; Farhan Mehboob bt Danish Atlas Khan 11-7, 11-3, 14-12; Aamir Atlas Khan bt Israr Ahmed 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-2.

Semi-final line-up (Sunday):

Nasir Iqbal vs Farhan Zaman; Farhan Mehboob vs Aamir Atlas Khan.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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