Easy sailing for top seed in All Pakistan National Men Senior Squash

PESHAWAR (APP): Easy sailing for top seeded players in the ongoing All Pakistan National Men Senior Squash Championship being played here at PAF Hashim Khan Squash Complex on Tuesday.

President KP Squash Association Qamar Zaman also present on this occasion and witnessed the matches. Member Executive Committee and Head of the Blue Tone Squash academy Wazir Gul, Head Coach PAF Squash Academy Atlas Khan, Chief Referee Munawar Zaman were also present.

In the opening match of the first round top seeded Zahir Shah recorded victory against Waqar Mehboob of ZTBL in a marathon five sets battle, the score was 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-8 and 12-10.

Both Zahir Shah and Waqar Mehboob received thundering applauses from the sitting spectators and some fine forceful shorts, nick and some excellent drops were also witnessed in 59-minute battle.

It was the first set when Waqar Mehboob took the lead by winning the set 6-11 but Zahir Shah came back strongly and won the second set by 11-8. The set was once tied at 8-8 otherwise Zahir Shah dominated the proceedings.

It was the third set when both Zahir Shah and Waqar Mehboob struggled hard for a single point and the set was tied on couple of occasions including at 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10 before Waqar took the set by 10-12.

After taking lead, Waqar tried his hard to stage a comeback and won one more set but he was failed because of the excellent display of forceful smashes of Zahir Shah by putting Waqar in the back of the court. Zahir Shad took the remaining two sets by 11-8 and the decision one by 12-10.

Waqar did some resistance in the last and fifth set but Zahir Shah given no time to him to settle down and thus marched into victory at 3-2.

In the second match Asian Champion Abbas Zeb Wapda defeated Mehran Javed of PAF by 3-1, the score was 9-11, 11-3, 11-2 and 11-9. Abbas Zeb played well against Mehran Javed who despite winning the first set failed to click and thus Abbas won the match by 3-1.

In the third match Saddam Ul Haq of Army beat Munir Zaman of Wapda by 3-0, the score was 11-6, 11-4 and 11-6. Munir has given a wildcard entry but he failed to come up strongly against Saddam Ul Haq. Former Asian Champion and Pakistan No. 1 Danish Atlas defeated his young rival Bilal Zakir of Pakistan Army by 3-0, the score was 11-6, 11-8 and 11-5. Danish marched into a one-sided victory.

Waqas Mehboob of PAF defeated Saad Abdullah of Sindh in straight sets, the score was 11-4, 11-2 and 11-2. Waqas Mehboob of PAF fully dominated the proceedings and did not give much time to Saad Abdullah to strike back.

In the other matches Raees Khan of Army beat Faraz Muhammad of Navy by 3-1. Raeed Khan won the first two sets by 11-8 and 11-2 but he failed to win the third set by Faraz Muhammad at 5-11. It was fourth set when Raees Khan won the battle by winning the fourth and decisive set by 11-5. Abbas Shoukat, the Asian and World Junior gold medalist, defeated Abdul Malik of Balochistan by 3-0, the score was 11-6, 11-3 and 11-9 while second seeded and former World No. 14 Farhan Mehboob defeated Asian Games gold medalist Aamir Atlas Khan of Wapda by 11-9, 11-4 and retired hurt in the third set.