FMC squash championship: Battle for main round begins today

Raees Khan stunned Bilal Zakir to enter the fourth FMC International Men’s Squash Championship main round at the Punjab Squash Complex on Tuesday.

In the first match of the second qualifying round, Raees Khan proved too strong for favourite and seeded player Bilal Zakir, and upset him 11/6, 11/6, 11/7. Both the players started the match at a high note and leveled the match at 6-6. After that Raees played superb squash and went on to win the first game 11/6. The second game was identical to the first one, as both started well but Raees ended in an excellent style, winning the game 11/6.

Bilal managed to level at 7/7 but once again Raees showed his potential and won the game 11/7 and registered an impressive victory in 30 minutes.

Faraz Muhammad and Aqib Hanif played a hard-fought match but the former emerged winner as he won the 28-minute long encounter by 11/4, 11/9, 12/10.

Waqas Mehboob played well against Mehran Javed and outlasted 11/7, 11/5, 11/8 in 19 minutes while in the last match of the day, Kashif Asif had to dig deep to defeat spirited Zeeshan Khan 11/3, 8/11, 11/6, 11/6 in a closely-contested 39-minute encounter.

From today (Wednesday), the main round will commence and will be inaugurated by FMC Managing Director Shahid Farooq.

Punjab Squash Association (PSA) Secretary Sheraz Saleem said that a tough contest was expected between all the 16 qualifying players during the international squash event. “Farhan Zaman is top seed while the presence of the players like Tayyab Aslam, Abbas Munir (USA), M Farhan, Israr Ahmad, Abass Shoukat, Farhan Mehboob, Khawaja Adil Maqbool, Waqar Mehboob and others will make the event more interesting and enthralling for the spectators,” he added.

(Source: Pakistan Today)