ISLAMABAD: A trio of Pakistan players reached the main round of the Chief of Naval Staff International Squash Championship by winning their final qualification round on Tuesday.

Ahsan Ayaz, Farhan Mehboob and Abbas Shoukat all prevailed here at the Mushaf Squash Complex but it wasn’t the case for their compatriot Israr Ahmed who fell to Egyptian Youssef Soliman.

Ahsan took 40 minutes to overcome Ahmad Al-Saraj of Jordan 11-5, 11-9, 11-6, Farhan thrashed fellow countryman Sadam-ul-Haq 11-2, 11-6, 11-3 in 24 minutes while Abbas had a 54-minute battle with compatriot Zahir Shah before prevailing 11-9, 12-10, 11-9.

Israr, however, failed to make it four out of four for Pakistan when he fell 9-11, 11-3, 10-12, 6-11 to Soliman in a contest lasting just under an hour.

Victories for Ahsan, Farhan and Abbas meant they joined another three compatriots — Farhan Zaman, Tayyab Aslam and wild card entrant Asim Khan — in the 16-player main round which features several foreign players and begins from Wednesday.

Egypt’s Omar Abdel Meguid is the top seed while other top players include Rex Hedrick from Australia, Dutchman Piedro Schweertman, Christopher Binnie of Jamaica, American Todd Harrity and Peter Creed from Wales.

Published in Dawn October 19th, 2016