Pakistan’s top junior squash players falter

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top junior squash players faltered in their first test regarding their preparations for World Juniors to be held in August.

Noor Zaman, Hamza Sharif, Hamza Khan, and Ashab Irfan have lost in the $6000 Bangamata Squash Tournament in Bangladesh.

This was their first international competition which the national squash federation arranged in order to prepare them for the prestigious World Juniors.

In this PSA Challenger 5 event, Pakistani juniors were among the top seed players. Noor was 5th seed while Hamza, Ashab, and Hamza were seeded 7th, 8th, and 9th, respectively.

However their performance was below par as only one player could reach the semifinals stage in this low-priced event.

“This poor performance of our World Junior contenders clearly reflects the downfall of Pakistan squash,” said a local coach while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that the national squash federation has failed to prepare players for the future and the ones who are being favored could not even reach the finals of low price events, let alone win any.

Ashab lost in the pre-quarterfinals and Noor and Hamza lost in the quarterfinals while Hamza lost in the semifinal.

Besides, the squash federation has been providing these players wildcard entries in the high-priced PSA events being held in the country.Like, Noor Zaman and Ashab Irfan got wildcards for the prestigious PSA Bronze category Karachi Open this month in Karachi. Similarly, Hamza Khan got two wild cards so far and is likely to receive more in the events scheduled in the country in the coming months.

Now, Ashab got a wildcard for the $12,000 DHA Squash Open starting from Saturday in Islamabad while Noor will also play this event.

Noor will also feature in the $5000 QSF-2 scheduled in Qatar next month and Hamza Sharif is playing the $10000 Qualico Manitoba Open in Canada.