LONDON, Jan 4: The Pakistani players competing in the British Junior Open Squash Championships in the northern English city of Sheffield experienced mixed fortunes in the second round on Thursday.

Almost all the Pakistani boys moved into the third round with their solid showings while the girls went down on another competitive day in the tournament. Second seed Farhan Zaman was hardly tested by his English opponent Declan Christie who went out in just ten minutes as the Peshawar player won 9-1,9-1,9-0.

However, in the longest encounter by far of the competition, Hamza Bokhari was forced to use all his skills and staying power against his belligerent Indian opponent Ravi Dixit who eventually lost after a marathon 134 minutes on the court. Hamza won the second round five-game thriller 7-9,10-8,9-4,5-9,9-7.

In comparison, Danish Atlas Khan won with relative ease against Ian Jubb of Scotland with a score line of 9-2,9-3,9-4 while compatriot Nausherwan dropped the opening game against his Egyptian rival Ahmad Hosny before winning 3-9,9-6,9-3,9-0.

However, in the Boy’s Under-19 round three, Mohammad Shoaib Hassan faced defeat as he was beaten 6-9,9-5,9-7,9-5 by Andrew Wagih Soukry of Egypt. But the Pakistani went out gallantly as he kept his opponent on the court for 88 minutes.

Shoaib also moved into the round three with his 9-3,9-0,9-3 victory over local hope Chris Fuller in the second round. However, his colleague Sheikh Saqib failed to progress further and was beaten 9-2,9-1,9-3 by Leo Au of Hong Kong.

Mohammad Bilal also failed to advance further in this category losing 9-6,7-9,9-3,9-5 to Michael Harris while Waqar Mehboob also met a similar fate as he was knocked out by Wael Farag of Egypt 9-2,9-0,6-9,9-6 to complete a dismal show in the under-19 event.

Pakistani girls disappointed with their performances in the Under-17 class with both Rushna Mehboob and Anna Kardar losing in the second round. Rushna was no match for the top seed Heba Alaa El Torky of Egypt, losing in 15 minutes by 9-0,9-1,9-2. Similarly, Anna fell to the local player Carnie Ramsay who won 9-6,9-6,9-0.

Shah Jahan Khan moved into the third round of the Boys-Under 13 event, putting out local boy Oliver Hotchkiss in straight games 10-8,9-3,9-2. In the Boys Under-15 second round Nasir Iqbal brushed aside his German opponent Sven Lemmermann 9-2,9-2,-9-1 while Haroon Rashid took 36 minutes to prevail over Michael McCue of Canada 9-0,9-4,-9-2.—APP