KARACHI: World No 57 and third seed Ivan Yuen of Malaysia avenged his last defeat when he subdued fourth seed Tayyab Aslam of Pakistan in four games to win the US$23,500 DHA Cup International Squash Championship at the DA Creek Club’s Asif Nawaz Squash Complex on Saturday.

Watched and appreciated by a sizeable crowd, Yuen sweat in the championship court for 54-minutes to triumph 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, 15-13 in the title clash.

Similarly, third seed Farida Mohamed, who is ranked 196th in the world, trounced unseeded Amina El Rihany 11-4, 6-11, 11-4, 11-0 in convincing fashion in 19-minutes to lay her hands on the women’s title.

“The victory helped me avenge the defeat that I’d suffered at the hands of Aslam in fully stretched battle at Lahore lat month,” a jubilant 28-year-old Yuen told reporters after the final.

The Penang-born Yuen, who turned pro in 2007, said he has shown considerable improvement winnihg his third PSA title this year having won back to back honours in New Zealand in June.

Aslam, meanwhile, blamed his defeat to couple of referee’s ‘unfair’ decisions particularly in the fourth and the last game that changed the complexion of the match.

“I was 9-5, 10-9 and 11-10 up in the fourth game when referee gave let and no let instead of awarding points,” said world No 54 Aslam, who pulled off the biggest upset by removing top seed Karim Al Fathi of Egypt in the semi-final the other day.

Yuen, who gets the better of unseeded Youssef Ibrahim of Egypt in the other semi-final, settled quickly and raced on to seize 7-1 and 10-4 lead before winning the first game 11-5 in 10-minutes.

Pakistan No 1 Aslam fought back into the match with a vigour didn’t giving much room to his opponent and grabbed 6-1 and 8-3 lead before taking advantage of opponents unforced errors Yuen reduced the deficit to 3-6 and 5-8 but finally succumbed and lost 5-11 in 11-minutes.

After one-all, Yuen completely enjoyed an edge over Aslam and surged 2-1 up winning the third game without resistance 11-3 in just nine minutes.

The fourth game saw both players quarrel with referee on his decisions repeatedly besides slipping in the court. It was a see-saw battle with score being tied at three-all, four-all, 10-all, 11-all and 13-all before Yuen rounding off winning 15-13.

The year has so far turned out to be fruitful for Farida as she bagged her second title. Her first success came when she won the South African Open PSA earlier.

Rihany, 16, has caught the eye of fraternity of the game shocking fourth seed Farah Momen in quarters and top seed Madina Zafar in the semis to reach maiden final of her career.

Lt Gen Humayun Aziz, Commander 5 Corps, who graced the final, gave away the prizes.

Yuen received US $ 3,249 while Aslam got richer by US $ 2,052 besides the winners and runner-up trophies.

Farida earned winning purse of US $ 992.75 while Rihany fetched $627 in addition to trophies.

Also present at the prize distribution ceremony among others were squash legend Jahangir Khan, AVM Ahsan Rafiq, Air Officer Commanding, Southern Air Command, PAF and administrator DHA Brig Abrar Hussain Bhatti.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2018