KARACHI, Nov 21: Four Pakistani players crashed out of the first qualifying rounds of the Qatar Classic international squash championship in Doha on Sunday. According to details made available here on Monday of the lucrative US$125,000 event, all the four players who competed in the first qualifying rounds failed to progress into the next stage.

Lahore’s Yasir Butt, Peshawar’s Farhan Mehboob, Aamir Atlas Khan and little-known Abdul Rehman lost in the first qualifying event.

Yasir lost to Ireland’s Liam Kenny in a five-game thriller. Kenny won the 66-minute encounter 3-2 to enter the final qualifying round of what is one of the major events of the season.

Farhan, who like Yasir is also among top 100 players in the world, lost in five games to South Africa’s Rodney Durbach. The young Farhan twice led against Durbach but finally lost 2-3 in 53 minutes.

Teenager Aamir Atlas failed to impress Italian number one David Bianchetti losing in straight games.

England’s Joey Barrington needed just 11 minutes to knock out Abdul Rehman.

The main rounds of the Qatar Classic will begin from Tuesday. Pakistan number one Shahid Zaman, a world number 16, and Mansoor Zaman (world number 23) are placed in the main round draw.—PPI