ISLAMABAD - Syed Hamza Bukhari Sunday reached the final of $10,000 Phoenix Open 2013 after brushing aside Nick Sachvie of Canada 3-0 in the semifinal in Tempe, USA.
While talking exclusively with this correspondent from USA a delighted Hamza said he was a qualifier in the event and I had seeded players to book a place in the final. I had long dreamed of winning laurels for the country at international stage and had worked really hard for the past 1-year and my commitment and hard work is slowly but steadily paying off, he added. Hamza had to dig deep in the first game before winning 12/10, but after that it was almost one-way traffic as Hamza never allowed Nick any chance to settle down. Hamza won the second game 11/3 and third 11/5.
Hamza will now face top seed Rex Hedrick in the final who defeated another young Pakistani future medal hope Tayyab Aslam 3-2 in 100 minutes of high-class squash. Tayyab after going 2-0 down showed his temperament and class by bouncing back to win the next two games to force the match into fifth and deciding game. Cramps forced Tayyab to retire otherwise he was all set to enforce a major upset.
In Ottawa, Canada, Danish Atlas Khan reached the finals of the Goodlife Open 2013 Squash Championship beating number 4 seed Eric Galvez of Mexico 3-1 in the semifinals of the $10,000 prize money championship. The match lasted for 54 minutes. Danish lost the first game 8/11 but bounced back in style to take the second game 11/4, third 11/8 and was almost unplayable and looked in a hurry to finish the match as he dropped just two points to take the fourth game as well as match game 11/2. Danish will now face top seed Martin Knight in the final today.
Nasir falls on first hurdle in Doha: Nasir Iqbal went down fighting against Ryan Cuskelly of Australia in the first round of $150,000 prize money 13th Qatar Classic Squash Championship 2013 losing 3-0 in 59 minutes. Nasir while talking to The Nation on Sunday said: “I tried my level best to give tough fight to highly experienced Australian and although I went down 3-0, but not without a fight.” Nasir lost first two games on tiebreaks 12/14, and 11/13. Two back-to-back tough games proved too much for Nasir as he was outclassed in the third game and lost it 3/11. Nasir said lack of experience had cost him as it was very close contest in first two games but experience of Ryan prevailed and he managed to win both close games.