KARACHI: Top two seeded players lived up to their billing by making it to the men’s and women’s finals of the Rs1.3 million ninth DG Rangers Sindh National Open Squash Championships at the Rangers Jahangir Khan squash complex on Wednesday.

World No 39 and top seed Nasir Iqbal set a date with second seed and world No 64 Frhan Zaman after the two registered emphatic victories over their respective opponents in the semi-finals.

Nasir, who won the President’s Gold Cup title at Islamabad recently, took hardly 25 - minutes to prevail over third seed and losing finalist of last edition Tayyab Aslam 11-7, 11-2, 11-3 in convincing fashion.

Similarly, second seed Farhan Zaman, the world No 64 who mostly stayed away playing circuit in the US this year, removed defending champion and fourth seed Farhan Mehboob 12-10, 11-7, 11-8 in 29-minutes.

The women’s singles final will be an all-SNGPL affair after top seed Sadia Gul and second seed Samar Anjum won their semi-final duels.

The former was stretched to four games by third seed Moqaddas Ashraf before she (Ashraf) succumbed 9-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-5 in 44-minutes while the latter prevailed over local player Faiza Zafar 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 in 21-minutes.

Results:

Men’s semi-finals:

Nasir Iqbal (Wapda) bt Tayyab Aslam (ZTBL) 11-7, 11-2, 11-3; Farhan Zaman (PAF) bt Farhan Mehboob (Wapda) 12-10, 11-7, 11-8.

Women’s semi-finals:

Sadia Gul (SNGPL) bt Moqaddas Ashraf (Wapda) 9-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-5; Sammar Anjum (SNGPL) bt Faiza Zafar (NUST) 11-5, 11-7, 11-5.

Thursday’s fixtures:

Men, women’s finals start at 3pm.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2015