Pak players suffer humiliating defeats at World Juniors

KARACHI: Pakistan suffered humiliation at the World Juniors Individual Championship as all four players crashed out of the event in just two days in New Zealand.

Three players lost on the first day — two in their first encounter and one in his second match. Only one player managed to enter the third round. Zeeshan Zaib defeated Lwamba Chileshe of New Zealand 15-13, 11-5, 11-9 in the first round but was beaten by Andrew Douglas of USA 9-11, 3-11, 6-11 in the second round.

Abdul Malik Imran got bye in the first round and faced defeat in his first encounter against Yash Fadte of India in the second round. Yash beat him 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7.Mansoor Zaman Junior also got bye in the first round and lost to Matias Knudsen of Colombia 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 6-11, 9-11 in the second round.

Abbas Zeb got bye in the first round and managed to beat Veer Chotrani of India 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 in the second round. But Matias Knudsen of Colombia defeated him 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9 in 54 minutes in the third round.

Pakistan’s poor performance drew criticism from local squash fraternity. “The federation spent close to Rs10 million on a useless series against Egypt and world players while their own squash is in shambles,” said an official of a provincial squash association.

Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) made tall claims about the training and preparations of the players. Pakistan had performed much better last year as Israr stood fourth in the 2016 World Junior Individual Championship. Ahsan Ayaz had lost in the third round; Mehran Javed in the second; and Abbas Shoukat and Kashif Asif in the fourth.

It is to be noted that no Pakistani player was seeded in the initial draws of this Championships and none of the four players has rankings in under-19 category even at Asian level. Abbas Zeb is ranked 5th by ASF in the under-17 category.