Nasir stuns Darren in CNS squash

KARACHI: Nasir Iqbal, Tomo Endo, and Will Salter stunned their opponents in the $20,000 CNS International Squash Championship in Karachi here on Wednesday. In the first round, wildcard Nasir defeated Darren 11-9, 11-5, 12-10 in 26 minutes and unseeded Tomo Endo from Japan surprised Ka Hei Ho from Hong Kong 12-10, 11-8, 5-11, 10-12, 11-3 in 58 minutes. Unseeded Will Salter from England overpowered seed Ondrej Vorlícek from Czech Republic 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7 in 71 minutes in the first round.

Meanwhile, unseeded Sebastiaan Hofman from Netherlands lost to Wong Chi Him from Hong Komg 4-11, 2-11, 5-11 in 26 minutes and Bryan Tze Kang Lim from Malaysia thrashed wildcard Abdul Basit from Navy 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 in 22 minutes.

Leo Chung from Hong Kong defeated Jan Wipperfürth from Germany 8-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-8 in 37 minutes and unseeded Hazem Hossam from Egypt lost to Syafiq Kamal from Malaysia 11-6, 11-13, 12-10, 9-11, 8-11 in 69 minutes.

Ong Sai Hung from Malaysia won against Hafiz Zhafri from Malaysia 8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9 in 60 minutes.

All seeded players including top seed M Asim, second seed Tayab Alsam, third seed Yassin Elshafei from Egypt, fourth seed Mohamad Zakaria from Egypt, fifth seed Perry Malik from England, sixth seed Tang Ming Hong from Hong Kong, seventh seed Noor Zaman, and eighth seed Matthew Lai from Hong Kong got byes in the first round.