ISALMABAD: While exhibiting fine quality, Shoaib Hassan, Ali Bukhari and Kashif Asif entertained the squash lovers and after fighting hard, defeating their opponents to move into main rounds of Pakistan Open Men’s Championship.

The qualifying round of $ 50,000 Pakistan Open concluded here at Mushaf Ali Mir Complex on Monday, in which a total of six Pakistanis players moved into main round.

Waqar Mehboob Shah Jahan Khan and Asim Khan all comfortably won their matches without facing any serious resistance.

The match between Shoaib and his compatriot Zeeshan Khan turned out to be one of the best both played superbly.

After fighting it out across five games in 55 minutes, Shoaib finally tamed Zeeshan with a scoreline of 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8 and 11-2.

In another well-contested match Kashif Asif defeated Sean Connory of Ireland in four games, winning 7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 while veteran Syed Ali Bukhari outclassed Danish Atlas Khan 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6.

Portugal’s Rui Soares and Adeen Idrakie of Malaysia also moved into next round after defeating local boys Waqas Mehboob 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9 and Bilal Zakir 11-7, 11-9, 11-9, respectively.

The main draw of prestigious Pakistan Open will be start from Tuesday.

In main round, besides the six home qualifiers, three top-ranked Pakistanis — Farhan Mehboob, ranked 66th in current world rankings, No. 76 Farhan Zaman and No 108 Ashan Ayaz — along wildcard entrant Israr Ahmed players from various countries will be seen in action.

Egypt’s Marwan El Shorbagy, the world No 5, is the top seed followed by compatriots Mohamed Abouelghar (11), and Zahed Mohamed (24).

Hong Kong’s 22th-ranked Leo Au is the fourth seed with his countrymen Max Lee (23) and Tsz Fung Yip (32) seeded fifth and sixth ahead of Malaysians Nafizwan Adnan and Mazen Hesham.

Meanwhile, in the CAS International Women Squash Championship the remaining four matches of qualifying round were played.

Enora Villard of France and three Egyptians — Nouran El Torky, Hana Moataz and Hana Ramadan — defeated their opponents to book their place in the 16-player main draw.

World No. 11 Hong Kong’s Annie Au is the top seed ahead of Egyptians Hania El Hamm¬amy (25) Mayar Hany (28), Nadine Shahin (33) and Australia’s Racheal Grinham (36).

Pakistan’s long representation in the women’s championship is Sadia Gul who joined the main round as a wildcard entrant.

Qualifying results:

Second round:

Men’s Pakistan Open: Syed Ali Bukhari (Pakistan) bt Danish Atlas (Pakistan) 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6; Kashif Asif (Pakistan) bt Sean Connory (Ireland) 7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8; Waqar Mehboob (Pakistan) bt Raees Khan (Pakistan) 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6; Shahjahan Khan (Pakistan) bt Faraz Mohammad (Pakistan) 11-7, 11-6, 11-2; Rui Soares (Portugal) bt Waqas Mehboob (Pakistan) 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9; Shoaib Hasan (Pakistan) bt Zeeshan Khan (Pakistan) 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-2; Asim Khan (Pakistan) bt Sadam-ul-Haq (Pakistan) 11-9, 11-7, 11-8; Adeen Idrakie (Malaysia) bt Bilal Zakir (Pakistan) 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.

Women’s CAS International:

Enora Villard (France) bt Farah Momen (Egypt) 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6; Nouran El Torky (Egypt) bt Nadia Pfister (Switzerland) 11-5, 17-15, 11-1; Hana Moataz (Egypt) bt Arezoosadat Mousavizadeh (Iran) 11-1, 11-5, 11-6 (17; Hana Ramadan (Egypt) bt Sachika Ingale (India) 11-6, 11-7, 12-10.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017