KARACHI, July 21: Reigning junior world champion, Ramay Ashour of Egypt, will have to cross a hurdle before making it to the main rounds of the Pakistan Open squash championship, when the two-day qualifying rounds gets underway at the PN Roshan Jahangir squash complex on Friday. Ashour, ranked 62nd in the world, is placed two steps below Pakistan’s Yasir Butt whom he had defeated in the individual final of world junior squash championship held at Islamabad last year.

Yasir had got the better seeding in qualifying rounds in view of his ranking in the world. He is ranked 53rd.

The qualifying rounds will form basis of selection of top eight players who will join 24 seeded competitors in the main rounds which begins at DHA Asif Nawaz complex from July 24.

As many as six foreign players were among 32 who will vie for top eight places in the qualifying rounds. They were M. Essam A Hafiz, Ramay Ashour (Egypt), Dylan Bennet (Holland), Bradley Hindle (Aus), Badar Al Hussaini (Kuwait) and Tariq Manzoor (UAE).

With the exception of Kuwaiti player, the rest of five foreigners have reached in the city. Hussaini is scheduled to arrive late Thursday night.

Meanwhile, eight players, including five from Sindh, namely Shahroze Khan, Khurram Shehzad, Jehanzeb Masood, M. Naeem , Kashif Khan, two from Punjab Farzan Rashid, Aqib Hanif and one from NWFP Alamzeb Jr have earned berth in the qualifying rounds after attaining top eight positions in pre qualifiers.

The following were the results:

Shahroze Khan (Sindh) bt Asif Khan (Sindh) 11-10, 11-7, 10-11, 11-6; Khurram Shahzad (Sindh) bt Attique Butt (Pun) 10-I1, 11-10, 11-6, 11-7; Jehanzeb Masood (Sindh) bt M. Naveed (Pun) 11-8, 11-10, 11-8; Alamzeb j r (NWFP) bt Jehangir Khan (Sindh) 11-7, 119, 11-4; M. Naeem (Sindh) bt Khurram Shahzad (Pun) 11-3, 11-5, 11-4; Farzan Rashid (Pun) bt Pir Usman (Bal) 11-4, 11-5, 11-3; Aqib Hanif (Pun) bt Naveed Alam (Sindh) 115, 11-8, 11-5; Kashif Khan (Sindh) bt Ubaid Jehan (Bal) 11-3, 11-10, 11-4.