KARACHI: Unseeded Ali Bukhari displayed great fighting skills to post an exciting 3-1 victory over qualifier Zahir Shah while fourth seed Israr Ahmed shocked second seed Ammad Fareed, also by identical 3-1 margin to storm into the final of the seventh Roshan Khan Open Squash —2017 at the Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Friday.

The 12th ranked Bokhari, who was upgraded in the main draw as the top reserve to fill the vacuum created due to staying away of the top two seeds, Farhan Mehboob and Farhan Zaman, cruised to 10-12, 15-13, 11-9, 11-8 victory over his opponent in the 51-minute agonising semi-iinal.

The 14th ranked Shah, who has hogged limelight over the last two days due to his outstanding performance, had a brisk start winning the first game 12-10.

But then there was no stopping for Bukhari who fought for each and every point in the next three games forcing Shah to surrender. The former made a comeback into the match from 0-6 deficit in the second game to drew level at six-all and for the first time seize 8-7 lead.

After deuce at 10-all, he maintained his grip and went on to win the game 15-13 and drew level in the match one-all.

Again the third game saw Bukhari making a comeback from 1-4 and 3-8 arrears to tied at nine-all before winning 11—9 to grab 2-1 lead in the match.

Bukhari wrapped up the match claiming the fourth game 11-8 in same fashion to the delight of spectators.

Meanwhile, in the all-SNGPL second semi-final, Ahmed turned the tables on Fareed 11-7, 9-11, 11-2, 11-9. The match lasted for 52-minutes.

Curtain falls on the event on Saturday with the final between Bukhari and Ahmed on the card at 3.30pm.

Results:

Semi-finals: Ali Bokhari (Punjab) bt Zahir Shah (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 10-12, 15-13, 11-9, 11-8; Israr Ahmed (SNGPL) bt Ammad Fareed (SNGPL) 11-7, 9-11, 11-2, 11-9.

Saturday’s fixtures:

Ali Bukhari v Israr Ahmed (final) at 3.30pm.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017