LAHORE, Dec 12: Nine Pakistani players moved into the next round of 25th World Open squash qualifying round held at two different venues, Punjab Squash Complex and Lahore Old Airport on Friday, the opening day of the tournament.

Ten Pakistanis were ousted from the event after they lost their openers while only three Mansoor Zaman (15), Farrukh Zaman (38) and Shahid Zaman (41) made it to the main round.

The players who entered the next round were Arshad Iqbal Burki, Khalid Atlas Khan, Saeed Hassan, Naveed Atlas, Safeerullah Khan, Majid Khan, Farhan Mehboob, Shamsul Islam and Yasir Butt.

Khayal Mohammad, Shahnawaz, Aqib Hanif, Mohammad Ilyas, Zubair Ali Khan, Haider Jamal, Basit Ashfaq, Bilal Zaman, Farhan Moeen and M Suleman lost in the first round.

An upcoming Saeed ranked 116 in the world, stunned Mark Heather (England), ranked 74 by winning in four games 17-14, 15-10, 14-15, 15-9.

World No 99, Naveed showed creditable performance when he carved out victory against World No 90, Scott Fitzgerald (Wales) 13-15, 15-10, 15-11, 15-8.

In a major upset, three prominent Pakistanis Khayal, Ilyas and Zubair had to taste defeat at the hands of low ranking players.

Philip Barker (119) of England defeated Khayal (95) after the latter conceded match in the third game 13-15, 15-11, 8-14.

Timmothy Manning (120) of Australia surprized Ilyas (93) 15-17, 15-9, 15-4, 15-4 while unseeded Raj Nanda of Australia got better of Zubair 15-13, 15-11, 15-8.

Ritwik Bhattacharya (83), the lone participant from India, defeated unseeded Pakistani Shahnawaz in a 56 minutes battle 15-11, 13-15, 15-13, 15-7.

In all, 16 matches were decided on Friday but not one went to the distance. Almost the same number of matches will be played on Saturday and the top eight winners will be eligible to enter the main round making it a 64-man draw.

Results:

Arshad Iqbal Burki (Pak) got a bye; Philip Barker (Eng) bt Khayal Mohammad (Pak) 13-15, 15-11, 18-14 (retd); Ritwik Bhattacharya (India) bt Shahnawaz (Pak) 15-11, 13-15, 15-13, 15-7; Khalid Atlas Khan (Pak) bt Aqib Hanif (Pak) 15-6, 15-7, 15-4; Saeed Hassan (Pak) bt Mark Heather (Eng) 17-14, 15-10, 14-15, 15-9; Timmothy Manning (Aus) bt Mohammad Ilyas (Pak) 15-17, 15-9, 15-4, 15-4; Raj Nanda (Australia) bt Zubair Ali Khan (Pak) 15-13, 15-11, 15-8; Naveed Atlas (Pak) bt Scott Fitzgerald (Wales) 13-15, 15-10, 15-11, 15-8; Safeerullah Khan (Pak) bt Haider Jamal (Pak) 15-9, 15-6, 15-7; Majid Khan (Pak) bt Basit Ashfaq (Pak) 15-6, 15-4, 15-7; Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt Andrea Capella (Italy) 15-9, 15-7, 15-7; Peter Barker (England) bt Tony James (Australia) 15-4, 15-8, 15-8; Dylan Bennat (Holland) bt Bilal Zaman (Pak) 15-7, 15-12, 14-15, 15-13; Shams-ul-Islam (Pak) bt Mark Kcrasjack (Hungary) 15-12, 15-13, 15-6; Yasir Butt (Pak) bt Farhan Moeen (Pak) 15-2, 15-3, 15-7; John Roony (Ireland) bt M Suleman (Pak) 15-2, 15-2, 15-9.