KARACHI: For the second tournament in a row, the semi-final hurdle proved too high for Pakistan number one Tayyab Aslam.

The second-seeded Tayyab went down to Egyptian fourth seed Moustafa El Sirty in a see-saw 53-minute semi-final of the CNS International Squash Championship here on Friday, having also fallen in the last four of the CAS International last month in Islamabad.

El Sirty won that tournament, beating Tayyab’s conqueror Augustine Dussourd of France in the final, and will look to secure a second title in Pakistan when he faces third-seeded Tsz Fung Yip of Hong Kong, who stunned top seed Todd Harrity in their last-four clash.

Tayyab won the opening game 11-9, only for El Sirty to level matters by taking the next 11-8. Tayyab went 2-1 up when he won the third game 11-9 but El Sirty regrouped to finish off Tayyab by winning the last two games 11-8 and 11-1. Yip won the first two games against Harrity 11-6 and 11-5 before the American hit back by winning the third 14-12. However, Yip quickly doused Harrity’s hopes of a comeback by sealing the contest with a 11-4 win in the fourth game.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2021