ISLAMABAD: Promising Pakis­tan player Far­han Mehboob caused a major upset on Thursday when he outclassed Farhan Zaman to reach the semi-final of the Chief of Naval Staff International Squash Championship here at the Mushaf Squash Complex.

World No. 109, Farhan Mehboob defeated his compatriot and world No. 55 Farhan Zaman in four games.

Farhan Zaman was the hosts’ main hope in the championship but he hardly came up to the expectation of squash lovers by ending up in a defeat at the hands of a junior player.

In the first game, Farhan Mehboob kept his rival under pressure and succeeded in winning the game 11-7. The seasoned player made a good comeback in the next game by defeating Farhan Mehboob 11-9.

However, in next two games, he could not maintain momentum and was outplayed by the junior player 11-5 and 11-7 in the 36-minute affairs.

Pakistan top-ranked Nasir Iqbal who is facing doping charges in Asian Games is not participating in the championship while two other top players in Amir Atlas Khan and Danish Atlas Khan who are in the US are not participating in the event.

All eyes had been on Farhan Zaman in their absence.

On the other hand, world number 77 Tayyab Aslam faced defeat at the hands of world number 30 Zahed Mohamed from Egypt in lopsided straight games.

The Egyptian remained dominating throughout the three sets and never provided any chances to Tayyab to take advantage of home court and crowd. Mohamed defeated Tayyab with game score 11-7, 11-5, 6-11 and 11-9 in a 45-minute clash.

Earlier, in first quarter final of the day, top seed and world number 28 Omar Abdel Meguid from Egypt defeated world number 96 and his countryman Youssef Soliman in straight game 4-11, 11-8, 11-0 and 11-4.

Also, world number 49 Todd Harrity of the US defeated world number 76 Peter Creed from Wales 12-10, 11-8, 11-4.

The semi-finals will be played on Friday.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2016