ISLAMABAD: Promising young squash players Mohammad Hamza and Humam Ahmed after defeating their opponents in the semi-finals of their respective categories of the US Junior Squash Championship at the Philips Academy, Boston, on Tuesday moved into the finals.

In the U-15 semi-final low-seeded Hamza Khan caused a major upset when he defeated top seed Mexico’s Sosa Federico in straight games 11-5, 11-9 and 11-5. He will face the US’s Carney Tedd in the final.

While in the U-13 Humam Ahmad overcame the US’s Ahmed Haq in straight games 11-7, 11-6, and 11-9 to play the final with Indian Rohan A. Gondi.

Earlier, in the quarter-final of the U-15Hamza Khan defeated Mohamed Abdullah from Egypt by 11/9, 11/9 and 12/10, while another Pakistani player Noor Zaman after a well-contested five-game match lost his quarter-final in the U-15 match to the US’s Carney Tedd with game scores of 6/11, 11/7, 7/11, 11/9 and 12/10.

In the U-13 quarter-final, Humam Ahmed defeated Egypt’s Salem Youssef by winning three sets out of five: 13/11, 9/11, 8/11, 11/8 and 13/11.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018