Pakistan squash players depart for Jordan today

KARACHI: The 11-member national squad of squash players, who will take part in the 24th Asian Junior Individual Squash Open to be held from August 15-19, will leave for Amman, Jordan, on Monday (today).

Huzaifa Ibrahim, Usman Nadeem, and Asadullah are seeded ¾, while Mohammad Hamza Khan, Mansoor Zaman, and Abbas Zeb are seeded 5/8.

Abdul Malik, Zeeshan Zeb, and Uzair Shoukat are seeded 9/16.According to the draws of under-13 category, Hamza Khan, Huzaifa Ibrahim and Usman Nadeem have got byes in the first round. 

In the second round, Hamza Khan will play against unseeded Rutva Samant of India, while Huzaifa will face unseeded Ahmad Bekdash of Jordan, and Usman will be up against unseeded N Lakman of Sri Lanka.

In the under-15 category, Asadullah has got bye in the first round, while Mohammad Ashab Irfan will play against N Karunaratne of Sri Lanka.In the under-17 category, Shahzad Ali will play against 5/8 seed Veer Chotrani of India and Uzair Shaukat is up against Nicolas Elias Nassar of Libya.

Pakistan’s hopes in the under-19 category are Abbas Zeb and Mansoor Zaman. Both are seeded 5/8 and their strong opponents are top seed Mohammad Al-Sarraj of Jordan and second seed Abhay Singh of India, respectively.

Abdul Malik is 9/16 seed and he is drawn against Mohammed Al-Majidi of Iraq in the first round, while Zeeshan Zeb is also 9/16 seed and he is pitted against Abedalkader Jeitan of Jordan. Mansoor Zaman is 5/8 seed and he has got bye in the first round.