ISLAMABAD: After defeating their opponents in pre-qualification rounds of Serena Hotel Chief of the Air Staff International Squash Championship at the Mushaf Squash Complex here on Monday, four Pakistani players moved into the qualification round, which will start on Wednesday.

Those who have advanced into the qualification round are: Zeeshan Khan, Ali Bukhari, Bilal Zakir and Ahsan Ayaz.

After two-day qualification round of 16 players, the main draw will start from Friday and the final of this international championship, which carries the bumper prize of US$25,000, will be held on November 21.

Besides top Pakistani players, professional players from Austria, Egypt, England, Hong Kong, Jordon and Netherland will be seen in action in qualification and main rounds.

Three Pakistani players: Farhan Zaman world number 52 and third seed in the tournament, Tayab Aslam world number 59 and eighth seed in the championship and wild-card entrant Waqar Mehboob are in the main round.

Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Amir Nawaz is expecting that some other Pakistani players will also reach the main draw after the qualification rounds.

According to the PSF, Hong Kong’s Leo Au (world number 32) is the top seed followed by Egypt’s Mohamed Reda (world number 50) and Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman.

Mazen Gamal from Egypt (world number 58) is the fourth seed followed by his compatriot Karim El Hammamy (world number 69) and Piedro Schweertman from the Netherlands who is (world number 78).

Nathan Lake of England is the seventh seed and Pakistan’s Tayab Aslam is the eighth seed.

In pre-qualification rounds on Monday, matches were held in two sessions. In the first session eight matches were held and then in the evening four matches were played.

Results:

Evening session:

Zeeshan Khan bt Ismail Rauf 11-9, 12-10, 11-5; Ali Bukhari bt Sheikh Saqib 19-17, 11-9, 11-6; Bilal Zakir bt Sadam-ul-Haq 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-13, 11-3; Ahsan Ayaz bt Asif Khan Khalil 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-5.

Morning session:

Ismail Rauf bt Mohammad Adil 8-11, 9-11, 11-4, 16-14, 11-4; Zeeshan Khan bt Abdul Basit 11-5, 11-4, 11-5; Ali Bukhari bt Raees Khan 11-9, 12-10, 11-3; Sheikh Saqib bt Faraz Muhammad 11-1, 11-3, 6-4 (retd); Bilal Zakir bt Tariq Khan 11-8, 11-6, 11-4; Sadam Ul Haq bt Noman Khan 11-3, 7-11, 11-4, 11-5; Asif Khan Khalil bt Kashif Arif 11-4, 11-3, 11-5; Ahsan Ayaz bt Salman Saleem 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.

Published in Dawn November 15th, 2016