KARACHI: Fourth seed Farhan Mehboob of Wapda and unseeded Riffat Khan of ZTBL ended the year on winning note by capturing their maiden titles in the Rs1.3 million eighth DG Rangers Sindh National Squash Championships at the Rangers Jahangir Khan Squash Complex here on Saturday.

Farhan accounted for fifth seed Tayyab Aslam of ZTBL 11-2, 11-3, 13-11 in 36 minutes to land the men’s crown first time since the inception of the event.

Meanwhile, Riffat made her mark when she got the better of eighth seed Zoya Khalid 11-5, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4 in an all-ZTBL final that lasted 28 minutes.

Riffat displayed her acumen when she disposed off Aimen Shahbaz straight in quarter-finals and shocked second seed Samar Anjum in four games in the semi-final before winning maiden senior title of her career.

Zoya was, however, unlucky as this was the fourth domestic title that eluded her during the year.

Top seed Sadia Gul, second seed Samar Anjum and third seed Zahab Khan and fourth seed Neha Khan — the last two being sisters — were eliminated earlier.

Similarly, besides top seed Nasir Iqbal who failed to arrive in the city from Peshawar, second seed Farhan Zaman and third seed Danish Atlas made unceremonious exit.

Farhan received a winning purse of Rs1,75,000 while Tayyab was awarded Rs1,15,000.

Riffat and Zoya got richer by Rs52,500 and Rs34,500 respectively.

Squash celebrity Jahangir Khan who graced the occasion distributed the prizes alongside deputy DG Rangers Sindh Brig Imran Munawar.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014