PESHAWAR, Oct 13: Former British Junior Open champion Safeerullah and Yasir Butt with two other Pakistanis moved into the main round of the US$25,000 Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) International squash championship that commences on Thursday at Army Squash Complex.
The championship, which uses the newly introduced scoring system of PSA, has attracted 10 foreign players from England, France, Kuwait, Ireland, Malaysia and Egypt. Mansoor Zaman, the last time runner-up will be top seed of the event. He was ranked 22nd in the world and further slipped to 29 in October PSA rankings.
The world No.23 One Beng Hee of Malaysia is seeded second, Mohammad Azlan Iskandar, ranked 29 third and Mansoor's cousin Shahid Zaman ranked 39 is seeded fourth.
Former world No.10 Amjad Khan is the only player who has won the trophy thrice, each in 1997, 1998 and 2000 while David Palmer of Australia, Dan Jenson of Australia, Gregory Gaultier (England) and Mansoor Zaman (Pakistan) have lifted it once.
The players who made it to main round through wildcards are: Hisham Mohammad Ashour (Egypt), Ben Garner (England), Farrukh Zaman, Mohammad Essam A. Hafiz (Egypt), Majid Khan, Jean Michel Arsucci (France), Saeed Hassan, Farhan Mehboob. Arshad Iqbal Burky, Yasir Butt, Safeerullah Khan and Shamsul Islam had to fight their way to main round after securing victories in qualifying matches.
Burky defeated Khalid Atlas 3-1 (4-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4) in 34 minutes. Yasir Butt beat Bilal Zaman 3-2 (4-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8) in 40 minutes while Safeerullah outclassed Aamir Atlas 3-1 (11-10, 7-11, 11-2, 11-5) in a 49-minute battle.
In the last qualifier, Shamsul Islam eliminated Khiyal Muhammad 3-1 in a 54-minute encounter. Shams clinched the first two sets 11-6 and 11-8 but failed to maintain his pace in the third and lost it 5-11. But he soon recovered to win the decisive set 11-10 after a tie at 10-all (15-13).
The foreigners who failed to qualify are: Arthur Gaskin of Ireland, Bader Al Hussaini of Kuwait, Amr Ramzy Swelim (Egypt) and El Iraky Omar Abdel Aziz (Egypt). -APP
