Pak players fail to reach Pakistan Open Squash last-eight

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in the history of Pakistan Open Squash, not a single local player made it to the quarter-finals, leaving it to foreigners to play for the honour and cash at the Mushaf Ali Mir Complex.

The Wednesday’s pre-quarter-finals saw all locals bowing out one after another as four Egyptians, and two each from Hong Kong and Malaysia made it to the last eight stage. It started with the fall of Farhan Zaman. Egyptian Mazen Hesham (Egy) defeated Farhan rather easily 11-9, 11-6, 11-6. Though Farhan showed some fight in the first game, he was never up to the required standard during the rest of the match and conceded the match easily.

“I was not hundred percent fit and was on antibiotics going into the match,” Farhan said after the match. “That was the reason I failed to put up a decent show. Though I tried a bit in the first game, I was unable to bring my best to the fore,” he added.

The body language of Pakistan players showed they lacked the confidence to win.Ehsan Ayaz was pitted against Egypt’s Zahed Mohamed at the all-glass court. The Egyptian started the match with one after another error, hitting four tins in a row to give Ahsan early advantage.

The Pakistani grabbed the first game but that was all he had in the match. Zahed took over and handled Ahsan with utmost ease, taking one after another points to win 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-2. Tayyab Aslam also proved the second best in the match against Mohamed Abouelghar who defeated him 11-5, 11-5, 13-11.

Title favourite Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) was as cool as ever as he spared just 25 minutes for Mohd Syafiq Kamal (Mas), winning 11-8, 11-7, 11-9. The Malaysian showed signs of brilliance but it was always a tough ask for him to threaten Marwan El Shorbagy who knew well how to finish off the game and the match.

Meanwhile, Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia surprised Hania El Hammamy of Egypt in a four-game thriller to move into the semi-finals of CAS International Women Squash Championship at the Mushaf Ali Mir Complex.

Subramaniam won 8-11, 14-12, 12-10, 11-9. Hania won the first game 11-8 but her Malaysian rival came back strongly and won the nail-biting second game 14-12. She consolidated her grip on the match by winning the third game 12-10. The fourth game also turned out to be a close affair. The Malaysian girl stayed cool and managed to win 11-9. The match lasted for 54 minutes.

Top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong also breezed into the semi-finals with an 11-2, 11-2, 11-8 win over Hana Moataz of Egypt. The second quarter final was played between Rowan Elaraby (Egy) and Mayar Hany (Egy) which was won by Rowan Elaraby with scores of 2-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3. The match lasted for 21 minutes.Rachael Gringham of Australia overwhelmed Nadine Shahin (Egy) 11-4, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7 to make it to the last-four stage.