Aamir, who was ranked at No 28 in July, jumped five places up to occupy the 23rd spot after featuring in the Malaysian Open and the Sportsmax Squash Open. - White Star

KARACHII: Pakistan’s No 1 squash player Aamir Atlas Khan has improved his international standing by five places, according to the rankings published by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) for the month of August.

Aamir, who was ranked at No 28 in the month of July, leapfrogged five places up to occupy the 23rd spot.

Aamir featured in two tournaments in the month of July and performed brilliantly in the first tournament, the CIMB Malaysian Open, where he reached the final after beating World No 10 Malaysian Mohammad Azlan Iskandar and World No 17 Australian Cameron Pilley.

After playing the events final against World No 6 Gregory Gaultier, Aamir left for Egypt, where he featured in Sportsmax Squash Open in Cairo. He fell in the quarterfinals of the event to Egyptian qualifier Marwan El Shorbagy, who has recently been crowned the World Junior Champion.

“It was a bad decision to play back to back tournaments. I played some tough matches in Malaysia and left the same day for Egypt after playing the final of the Egyptian Open. I played the first round of Sportsmax Open only 24 hours after having played the final of the Malaysian Open.

“The quarterfinal, which I lost, was also in the next 24 hours of the first round. I was exhausted and needed a rest while Marwan was in form and played well in the quartefinal,” Aamir told PPI.

Aamir, who will represent Pakistan in the World Team Championship later in this month in Germany, said that he was expecting improvement in his rankings and he is delighted to jump to the 23rd spot.

“Improvement in my rankings may help Pakistan to feature in World Team Championship as a seeded side.

“This would help us face weak teams in the beginning and may help us advance in the tournament and achieve a worthwhile place at the end of the event,” he explained.

However, Aamir is the only player in the World Team Championship squad who is ranked in the top 100 and other than him no other Pakistan player going to Germany is ranked among the top 100 elite squash players of the world.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s No 2 Farhan Mehboob, fell five places down and is now ranked at No 41. Farhan was not selected for the World Team Championship event after the left-hander fell early in the trials.