World No.4 Asal withdraws from Karachi Open

KARACHI: World number four Mostafa Asal from Egypt has withdrawn his name from the prestigious $50k Karachi Open Squash Championships to be held in Karachi from March 15-19.

Asal has been facing disciplinary action from Professional Squash Association and was suspended for two months —January 10 to March 10— from the PSA Tour.

“His ban would end by the time the Karachi Open starts. But the actual reason(of his not coming) is the cancellation of Punjab Open that was scheduled in Lahore the same month,” said Asal’s manager Jahanzeb Khan when contacted.

He added that it would have been better for Asal if he had got to play the $50k Punjab Open too, so he decided not to come to Pakistan just for the Karachi Open.

It is to be noted that Asal was top seed in the Karachi Open. Now, former world champion and current world number 13 Karim Abdel Gawad from Egypt has replaced him as the top seed.

On the other hand, Karachi Open has plunged into a controversy as the organiser(Sindh Squash Association) has created resentment among local players by awarding wildcards to Noor Zaman and Ashab Irfan.

“Faizan Khan is a player from Sindh and he emailed to the Secretary SSA Rashid Ahmed requesting to award him the wildcard,” said a source while talking to ‘The News’.

But, the source added, that the Chairman SSA reprimanded Faizan for asking the wildcard and snubbed him citing his poor performance as he lost in the first round of a satellite event.

However, the Chairman SSA should be informed now that Noor Zaman, who was given a wildcard instead of Faizan, too lost in the first round of a low-ranked event in the United States recently, the source asserted.

“Every squash player in Sindh is disheartened by this very negative approach of the SSA. This is not going to help local players in any case,” said the source.