ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s qualifier Farhan Mehboob caused the first upset in the main round of the Serena Hotel Chief of Air Staff International Squash Championship when he outclassed fourth seed Mazen Gamal of Egypt in straight games here at the Mushaf Squash Complex on Friday.

World No.85 Farhan, who is Pakistan’s main hope in the high-profile event after compatriot Farhan Zaman, simply outclassed Gamal, his senior and world No.58, 11-8, 11-7, 11-3 in mere 30 minutes.

Farhan Zaman, the tournament third seed, produced a brilliant show to also qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating England’s Jamie Haycocks 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 in a match lasting only 23 minutes.

Meanwhile, other Pakistan players eighth seed Tayyab Aslam, wild card entrant Waqar Mehboob, Israr Ahmed and Ahsan Ayaz could not come up to the expectations and lost without giving any serious resistance to their opponents.

Leo Au of Hong Kong defeated Waqar 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 (32min) while Egypt’s Shehab Essam overpowered Tayyab 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 3-0 in 48 minutes as the latter retired.

Karim El-Hammamy of Egypt in a 73-minute battle overwhelmed Ahsan 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6. Ahsan, who made the main round after winning pre-qualification and qualification rounds, played superbly to give his senior Egyptian opponent tough time before the Pakistani went down fighting.

Mohamed Reda, another Egyptian, overcame the challenge from Israr 13-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-4 (60min).

In other matches staged on Friday, Egypt’s Youssef Soliman beat Piedro Schwe­ertman of the Netherlands 9-11, 11-2, 11-7, 11-4 in 54 minutes while Nathan Lake of England downed Jordan’s Ahmad Al-Saraj 12-10, 8-3 in 24 minutes as the Jordanian player retired.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2016