KARACHI: Veteran Farhan Mehboob outclas­sed Saddam-ul-Haq in the main round match to reach the men’s quarter-finals of the second CNS All Pakistan Squash Championship here at the Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Thursday.

Wapda’s Farhan, the nephew of squash legend Jansher Khan, trounced Saddam of Army 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 in just 23 minutes.

The 34-year-old Farhan was the more energetic in the court as he went 3-0 up in the first set before Saddam, 30, opened his account. But Farhan didn’t let his opponent settle and quickly wrapped up the first set.

Continuing with his dominance, Farhan clinched the next two sets and advanced to the next round with a convincing 3-0 victory.

Earlier in the other top-half of the draw matches, Wapda’s Nasir Iqbal beat Zain Ramzan of Punjab 12-10, 12-10, 11-2 while Mehmood Mehboob downed Talha Saeed of Sindh 11-5, 11-4, 11-7. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khushal Riaz also booked a spot in the next round with a toiling 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 2-11, 11-9 win over Navy’s Mohammad Ali.

Mohammad Azlan Khawar, Israr Ahmed, Anas Khan and Waqar Mehboob proceeded to the next round in the bottom-half of the draw ties.

The first-round fixtures in the women’s category saw Wapda’s complete dominance as all four of their players progressed to the next round. Noor-ul-Ain downed Ilsa Imran of Sindh 11-1, 11-1, 11-6 while Saima Shaukat defeated Sehrish Ali 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8.

Komal Khan won her match against Aina Sha­ikh 11-8, 11-2, 11-7 and Mehwish Ali advanced to the quarters after beating Mahnoor Ali 12-10, 11-9, 11-7.

Roshna Mehboob, Mariam Malik, Anam Mustafa and Zaynab Khan won their respective matches and booked a berth in the last eight.

Later on Thursday, the opening ceremony of the championship was held with Rear Admiral Mohammad Saleem, Commodore Tauqeer Ahmed Khawaja and tournament director and former hockey World Cup-winning captain Islahuddin Siddiqui gracing the event with their presence.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2023