Israr in World Junior Squash semis

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Israr Ahmed moved into the semi-finals of the World Junior Squash Championship (individual category) on Tuesday at Bielsko-Biaa, Poland.

In the quarter-finals, Israr overpowered Marwan Tarek Abdelhamid of Egypt 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 11-5 in 72 minutes.

Israr was likely to face top seed Saadeldin Abouaish of Egypt in the semis. Saadeldin was playing against Benjamin Aubert of France in the quarter-final but the French player got injured and got three hours for recovery.

“Marwan is quite experienced due to which he survived the early attacks of Israr and made a strong comeback to level the match 2-2. But Israr showed his excellence and won the last set,” said coach Amjad Khan while talking to ‘The News’.

He claimed that the win had boosted the morale of the Pakistani camp and that Israr was confident.

When asked about the failure of Ahsan, he said little exposure to international squash and such big events was the reason why Ahsan exited early from this event. “I am working with Ahsan to help him recover from the shock. He is a good player and I hope he will show his best in the team championship,” said Amjad.