LAHORE-Faraz Muhammad stunned Khawaja Adil Maqbool in the main round of the 4th FMC International Men’s Squash Championship 2016 while all the top seeds had easy sailings in main round which commenced here at the Punjab Squash Complex on Wednesday.
Faraz upset Adil 11-8, 3-11, 11-8, 5-11, 13-11 after a thrilling encounter. Faraz started the match well against Adil and won the first game 11-8 but Adil bounced back in style and won the second game 11-3. Faraz utilized his skills well to win the third game 11-8 but Adil once again made a strong comeback to win the fourth game 11-5. In the fifth and decisive game, both the players fought for each and every point and were tied at 11-11. At this crucial stage, Faraz played powerful game and won the next two points to stun Adil in 45-minute long marathon match.
In the first match of the main round, top seed Farhan Zaman played well against Abbas Maniar of USA and outpaced him by 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-3. Although Abbas started well against Farhan and first took a healthy lead against him but then Farhan started showing glimpses of his game and leveled the game at 9-9. It was good luck of Abbas who got benefit of Farhan’s relaxing approach and won the first game 11-9.
It was all that Abbas can get as Farhan then played his natural game with powerful hitting and excellent shots and won the second game 11-6. He played more powerful game in the third and fourth games and won them by 11-5, 11-3 respectively to register an impressive triumph in 32 minutes.
One of the emerging stars of the country Israr Ahmed took just 10 minutes to outclass M Farhan by 11-4, 11-1, 11-0 in the second match of the day. Israr faced some resistance only in the first game which he won 11-4 while in the second and third games, he didn’t allow Farhan to play freely and won them by 11-1 and 11-0.
In other matches of the day, Farhan Mehboob defeated Zahir Shah 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 in 25 minutes. Raees Khan had to dig deep to beat Abbas Shaukat by 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 in a hard-fought 28-minute clash. In the well-contested 37-minute encounter, Waqar Mehboob beat Kashif Asif 11-9, 11-8, 11-7. In the second last match of the main round, another shining star Tayyab Aslam played well against Waqas Mehboob and managed a hard-fought win against him by 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 in 57 minutes while in the last match of the day, Amaad Fareed had to dig deep against Asim Khan to defeat him by 7-11, 12-10, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9 in 63 minutes.
Earlier, FMC Managing Director Shahid Farooq inaugurated the 4th FMC International Men’s Squash Championship 2016. Punjab Squash Association (PSA) president Malik Amjad Noon, senior vice president Rana Tariq, secretary Shiraz Saleem, tournament referee M Asim Amin, Abdul Rasheed, Asif Khan and others were also present on the occasion.