Egypt’s Youssef, Malaysian Yuen enter FMC Int’l Squash final

LAHORE: Number one seed Yousuf Soliman of Egypt and Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen reached the final of FMC International Men’s Squash Championship-2018 after winning their respective semifinals here at the four-walled glass court installed at a local hotel on Thursday.

Youssef beat Pakistan’s Farhan Mehboob in the first semifinal whereas Ivan Yuen of Malaysia defeated Tayyab Aslam of Pakistan in the second semifinal. The final will be played at the same venue on Friday followed by the prize distribution ceremony.

In the first semifinal Top seed Youssef Soliman overpowered a tough resistance unleashed by eighth seed Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan. It took 43 minutes for Yousuf to take control of the match. Both the players fought gallantly in the first game but the number one seed prevailed in a better fashion. But Farhan managed to bounce back in the second game. But in the next two games, Farhan lost his concentration or maybe his stamina and conceded the third and fourth game and the match to Yousuf. Farhan fought well and kept on giving tough time to his opponent till the end, but the experienced Egyptian, who earlier defeated Asim. The final score was 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-3.

In the second semifinal, Ivan Yuen of Malaysia beat Tayyab Aslam by 9/11, 11/7, 11/8, 11/9. Yuen will now meet Yourself of Egypt in the final on Friday.Earlier in the quarter-finals round one Egyptian, two Pakistanis and a Malaysian player made their way to the semifinals. Egypt’s Yousuf Soliman, who is number 1 seed was the first to qualify for the semifinal while Farhan Mehboob and Tayyab Aslam were the two Pakistani players to reach the last four along with Ivan Yuen of Malaysia.

Yousuf Soliman beat Asim Khan of Pakistan in very-keenly contested first quarter final 3-2. In the second quarterfinal, Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan defeated Egypt’s Mazan Gamal in straight games that lasted for just 32 minutes with the score being 11/9, 11/8, 11/9

The third quarter-final finished in favour of Tayyab Aslam who beat Auguste Dussourd of France also in straight games 11/8, 11/9, 12/10 in a 35 minute encounter. Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen overpowered Pakistan’s Israr Ahmad in a similar fashion score 11/8, 11/6, 11/7 that lasted for 31 minutes.