Last month two of Pakistan`s young squash players managed to find themselves among the top 20 international players. Does this augur well for Pakistan squash? Or is it just a flash in the pan?

Aamir Atals Khan, the19-year-old son of former international squash player Atlas Khan and nephew of eight-time World Open winner Jansher Khan, is currently holding 16th place in the PSA world rankings for men. It`s Aamir`s career best ranking so far. At the start of 2008, he was ranked 29. However, he went 15 places up in the December 2008 rankings after being placed 31 in November.

Aamir`s cousin, Farhan Mahboob, ranked 52 in January 2008, has also performed well in terms of bettering his position. He has achieved his career-best world ranking (20) after going seven places up in December.

All of this is to do with players` performance in the Professional Squash Association (PSA)-approved tournaments which have a different grading system.

But improvement in world ranking without winning a single major tournament in Pakistan or outside the country does not mean that Aamir Atlas and Farhan Mahboob have done wonders in international squash.

Five years ago, left-handed Mansoor Zaman, the son of former British Open Champion, was the highest ranked Pakistani player (11) in the May 2003 World rankings, but later he failed to maintain it. Mansoor`s position started to dip as he performed poorly in major events.

After the retirement of legendary players, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan, it was Amjad Khan who gave the only noteworthy performance by clinching the $50,000 Pakistan Open in Karachi in 1998. Amjad defeated Australian qualifier John Williams in the first round in the 32-player main draw, beat eighth-seed Egyptian Amir Waigh in the second round, overcame Australian world number 29 Graigh Rowland in the quarterfinal, beat world no. 17 David Evans in the semifinal, and won the final against Canadian world no. 16 Graham Ryding. But ever since, no Pakistani player has given any praise-worthy performance in international squash.

After the Karachi victory, Amjad, then aged 18, improved his ranking and reached 13th spot in 1999, but even he could not win any event outside Pakistan.

Jansher Khan`s nephew, Amjad had the potential to become a world class player, but he remained jobless and could not get the required financial support to pursue his professional career. He still plays in domestic and PSA-sanctioned tournaments in the country.

Currently at least three PSA-sanctioned events, each worth $25,000 excluding the Pakistan Open, are held every year in the country. This is supposed to provide our players with a good opportunity to better their world ranking. But for the last two years Pakistan squash has been suffering heavily as renowned international players feel reluctant to come to Pakistan to take part in tournaments, citing security concerns.

The PSF has in recent times funded foreign tours for our top players to participate in more than half a dozen tournaments, but the performance of both Amir Atals and Farhan Mahboob has left much to be desired, particularly in the World Open tournament in Manchester -- both were beaten in the second round.

Amir Atlas performed well to reach the semifinal of the $50,000 Monaco Open. But he suffered first-round defeat in December against England`s Nick Metthew in the $2,50,000 Saudi International, the biggest prize money squash event.

So it remains to be seen weather Aamir and Farhan will further improve their rakings in 2009.