ISLAMABAD - High-flying Farhan Mehboob marched into the semifinals of the $25,000 President Gold Cup International Squash Championship after beating Hong Kong’s Tsz Fung Yip 3-2 in marathon quarterfinal played here at Mushaf Squash Complex on Wednesday.

Farhan displayed finest squash, despite being highly frustrated and irritated with a series of poor calls by referees against him, but he never lost his composure and shut his critics’ mouths up with sensational victory. He started the first game on a low as he was trailing 0-3, but once he settled down, he first took 7-4 lead and then made it 9-5. But the referees’ costly judgments bridged the gap and Yip started breathing right under Farhan’s neck. Mehboob held his nerves and took the first game 11-9. By displaying top drop shots, which hit just above the tin, Mehboob took the first game in 11 minutes.

After losing the first game, Yip started playing aggressively, and took lead 9-3 lead first and then won the game 11-8. After losing the second game, Mehboob staged a mini comeback and took 2-0 lead and then he was 10-7 up, but once again referees played their part, which left Mehboob highly irrigated. Yip got a chance to settle down and first leveled the game at 10-10 and then went on to take 11-10 lead. Mehboob used his vast experience and played a pin-point drop shot just above the tin to win the game 14-12.

The fourth game once again started with Mehboob leading 4-0, but at that point, first he committed two unforced errors and then referees started playing their part, which resulted in Yip taking the game 12-10. Mehboob entered the fifth and deciding game with in spirits and simply outclassed Yip as he first took 8-2 lead and then finished off Yip at 11-3 through his world class drop shots. With this win, Mehbook set semifinal date against Egyptian Mohamed Reda.

Farhan Mehboob is carrying the hopes of entire Pakistani nation for doing well in the PSA events. In the absence of Aamir Atlas, Nasir Iqbal and Danish Atlas, Mehboob has been keeping the green flag high. He never demanded anything beyond the federation’s reach, but just wanted respect and care which other players enjoy. But it is quite disheartening that he is always given a step-motherly treatment by the PSF. The PSF president must ensure Farhan Mehboob gets PSA events, which can help him climb to top 20 in PSA rankings and earn laurels for Pakistan.

It was the worst-ever refereeing on offer by centre referee Jamshed Gul Khan, left referee Asif Khan and right referee Kashif of Malaysia. They tried their level best to cost Farhan the match as their pathetic and poor calls went against Mehboob right from the first game. It is high time when the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) must launch a strong protest to the World Squash Federation (WSF). The footages of the match must be sent to the WSF to decide what kind of referees they had on their panel.

On the other hand, it proved black day for Pakistan squash, as the remaining two local quarterfinalists Farhan Zaman and Israr Ahmed were given thrashing by their respective opponents. In the first quarterfinal, top seed Leo Au of Hong Kong outclassed Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman 3-0 in just 39 minutes. Despite having full crowd support, Zaman was never in the match as Leo played took the first game 11-7, second 11-5 and third 11-6 to squeeze into the semifinals. In another quarterfinal, Egyptian Karim Al-Fathi thrashed Pakistan’s Israr Ahmed 3-0. The Egyptian took the first game 11-9, second 11-6 and the third 11-5.

In the fourth and last quarterfinal played between Egyptians Mohamed Reda and Karim El Hammamy, it was like a world war-cum-squash match. Both the players were involved in ugly scenes and were pushing each other, Hammamy was especially highly disrespectful and using foul language against Reda, who time and again lodged protest with referee, but no action was taken till the third game. At last, the referee finally lost his patience and awarded conduct stroke against Hammamy. Reda took the first game 11-5 and took second 11-6 and third 11-5 to complete straight forward victory in 36 minutes.

The first semifinal will be played between Hong Kong’s Leo Au and Egyptian Karim Al-Fathi at 2pm today (Thursday), while the second semifinal will be held between Farhan Mehboob and Egyptian Mohamed Reda at 3pm.