Farhan Zaman wins All Pakistan National Senior Squash C’ship title

PESHAWAR (APP): World No 76 Farhan Zaman of Pakistan Air Force took no time in eliminating his young and upcoming rival Noor Zaman in final of the All Pakistan National Senior Squash Championship played here at PAF Hashim Khan Squash Complex on Saturday.

Legendary Jansher Khan along with Chairman KP Squash Association and Secretary Irrigation KP Dawood Khan graced the occasion as guests and witnessed the one-sided final. Col Faisal (ANF), Head Coach PAF Squash Academy Peshawar Atlas Khan, Members Executive of KP Squash Association Wazir Gul, Sher Bahadur, Mehboob Khan, coaches of the PAF Academy, officials, players and spectators were also present at the final.

Reaching to the final is a big achievement of young upcoming junior player Noor Zaman, a grand son of former British Open Champion Qamar Zaman. Noor Zaman has shown his tremendous skills against senior players and played some tough matches but he could not maintain his class in the final against Farhan Zaman.

Farhan Zaman is a professional squash player who represents Pakistan in various outings and he reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 47 in January 2017 besides remained at World No. 3 in Junior Squash, did not face any hardship against his young rival and his nephew Noor Zaman when he marched into victory in straight sets 3-0.

Noor Zaman was certainly looked tired due to his thrilling five sets battle on Friday in the semi-final against Waqas Mehboob and did not stand in front of excellent game by 27-year-old Farhan Zaman who born on March 9, 1992.

Turn to professional squash in 2010, Farhan Zaman, played well and won the first set by 11-6, and did the same in the second and third sets won by him at 11-5 and 11-9. The final lasted for 30 minute as Noor Zaman of CAA did some resistance in the last set and even took the lead at 3-7 but Farhan Zaman fully dominated the match and first tied the tally at 7-7 and then 9-9 before closing the set at 11-9 in his favour.

At the end, former World Champion legendary Jansher Khan, Dawood Khan, Col. Faisal of Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF), Secretary KP Squash Association and father of Noor Zaman, Munawar Zaman gave away trophies and cash prizes.

Speaking on this occasion, Qamar Zaman informed that KP Squash Association is holding 22 to 25 tournaments a year and has already released its calendar of the event for 2020 last week.

He said it is the second event of the New Year wherein players from all over Pakistan turned up. Vice President Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) Qamar Zaman informed that out of 22 tournaments 10 have been exclusively for female to promote female squash as well in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said last year they have organized 22 tournaments out of six were exclusively for girls with a National Senior and Junior Women Squash Championship.

He said good result if coming up while focusing specifically on age groups tournaments like Under-11, Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 (boys) and Junior Age Group tournaments for the girls as well. He also appreciated Dawood Khan for his kind support both financially and morally.

He said now International squash is coming to Pakistan and I want to have an international squash event in KP so that a good image of the province could be highlighted through that way. Talks have already been on with Senior Minister Muhammad Atif Khan for holding international tournament in Peshawar this year and hopefully good numbers of foreign players would come to Peshawar, he concluded.