Khalid Atlas in quarters: Squash
KARACHI, April 28: Pakistan’s Khalid Atlas Khan recorded an upset in the Mega Italia Open squash championship when he trounced England’s seventh seed Sam Miller in the opening rounds of the world-ranking tournament in Brescia, Italy on Wednesday.
According to information made available here on Thursday, Khalid took 48 minutes in beating Miller 11-9, 11-3, 4-11, 11-9 to enter the quarterfinals.
He now meets top seeded Italian number one David Bianchetti in the last-eight stage.
England’s defending champion Scott Handley was given a straightforward passage through to the last eight of the event when his first round opponent retired injured midway through the second game.
Handley beat French qualifier Alexandre Muller 11-3, 5-0 and now faces American junior Christopher Gordon, a straight games winner over Australian qualifier Tony James.
Jesse Engelbrecht became the only qualifier to survive the first round when he toppled England’s sixth seed Andrew Whipp 10-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-3.
The UK-based Zimbabwean now faces another Englishman, unseeded Daryl Selby who knocked out France’s fourth seed Julien Balbo 11-3, 11-4, 11-4.—PPI