Squash players settled abroad participating in local events

KARACHI: Many squash players, who now live abroad, returned home to participate in major events and to support the sport.

Farhan Zaman and Shahjahan Khan recently came back from the USA to take part in the bilateral series against Egyptian players when Danish Atlas and Nasir Iqbal were unavailable.

Shahjahan, Farhan Zaman, Ammad Fareed, Ali Bukhari, Adil Maqbool — all residing in foreign countries— are also playing in the $15,000 Roshan Khan Open, being held in the city.

On Tuesday, Shahjahan and Tayyab Aslam confirmed their presence in the semi-finals of this event by winning their quarter-finals in straight sets against Mohammad Farhan and Zahir Shah, respectively.

Shahjahan took only 20 minutes to overpower Farhan by 11-6, 11-5, 11-9. Tayyab recorded a convincing 11-7, 11-3, 11-9 victory in 25 minutes.

Farhan Zaman is also set to be the top seed for the 4th FMC International Squash Championship, carrying prize purse of US$15,000, to be held in Lahore from May 2-7.

According to main round draw, Farhan will face Abbas Maniar; Mohammad Farhan will take on sixth seed Israr Ahmed; Zahir Shah will play against fourth seed Farhan Mehboob, while fifth seed Asim Khan will be up against wildcard Amaad Fareed.

The players who will face qualifiers in the main round are second seed Tayyab Aslam, seventh seed Waqar Mehboob, third seed Adil Maqbool, and eighth seed Abbas Shoukat.

The qualifiers for this event are: Bilal Zakir, Kashif Asif, Faraz Mohammad, Nasir Anwar, Asif Khan, Ali Bokhari, Mohammad Ibrahim, Zeeshan Khan, Kashif Arif, Mahad Javed, Salman Saleem, and Aqib Hanif.