MANCHESTER, July 26: Pakistan’s new generation, hoping to take over the flame from some of the greatest players of all time, made a rampaging start to the Commonwealth Games Friday.

Cousins Farrukh and Mansoor Zaman needed little more than half an hour altogether and conceded only one point between them before reaching the second round of the men’s singles, prompting inevitable conparisons with a legendary past.

The 22-year-old Mansoor is the son of one of the all-time greats, Qamar Zaman, a former world number one and British Open champion, and won 9-1, 9-0, 9-0 against Regan Pollard of Guyana.

Both he, and Farrukh, who conceded no points against Keabetsoe Monnapula of Lesotho, and another cousin, Shahid Zaman, have to live with the burden of the same famous name.

“That is not easy for them,” acknowledged Jahangir Khan, the record-breaking ten times former British Open champion who is with the Pakistani squad.

“It is bound to be hard being compared with all the great players Pakistan has had in the past. Going to that level is going to be difficult for them.

“But they all have ability and talent and all of them can do very well. The skill is there but they have to work harder and they have to try to be fit mentally as well as physically.

“Mentally I don’t think they are open. They are blocked,” Jahangir asserted.

“They don’t feel they have confidence, and they play much better at home than they do away. They have the potential but they just have to realise it.”

Mansoor, the 14th seed, could go on to a third round with Lee Beachill, the British national champion, while Shahid, the 15th seed is in the same section as Stewart Boswell, the fast rising top five Australian.

“We tried using a psychologist with them for a while,” said Pakistan’s team leader, Air Marshall Saeed Qasir Hussein. “Mentally they are not always in the matches and they can be erratic.”

“Mansoor has the best technique, Shahid is a hard hitter a bit like Hiddy Jahan in the past, and Farrukh is the hard worker, the one who really goes at it. But they all have the ability to reach the world’s top ten by the end of the year we think.”

The squash schedule started with a visit from Queen Elizabeth, who was unexpectedly kept waiting for several minutes by a player who was paying a visit to the toilet.

Her majesty was due to meet Chris Walker, a former captain of an English world title winning team, but arrived a little early, which caught the player out.

“When the official came in looking for me I was in the toilet and when I came out he was gone,” admitted Walker.

“Then someone came in and shouted: ‘Where are you? the Queen is here.’ I was a bit surprised.”

Walker did not intend keeping his opponent waiting as well. He got Wayne Prescod on and off in 17 minutes, beating the Jamaican champion 9-0, 9-4, 9-2.

Results:

Men’s Singles (first round)

Nicholas Kyme (Ber) bt Damien Tam (Png) 9-3, 9-0, 9-3; Alex Gough (Wal) bt Murray Martin (Zim) 9-0, 9-0, 9-3; Chris Walker (Eng) bt Wayne Prescod (Jam) 9-0, 9-4, 9-2; Shahier Razik (Can) bt Rajdeep Bains (Ken) 9-4, 9-1, 9-6; Gavin Jones (Wal) bt Baitsi Motsamai (Les) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) btGabe Rabess (Dma) 9-1, 9-0, 9-5.—AFP