ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman went down fighting 3-2 against top seed Egyptian Karim Abdel Gawad in the $25,000 Dubai Cup Squash 2014 first round match.
Farhan was leading 2-0 but he threw away the advantage. Farhan started the first game on a very high note, and won it 11-9, and then went on to win the second 11-8. Then Karim showed his class and bounced back in style winning next three games in a row to win the marathon match.
Karim won the third game 11-7. In the fourth game, Farhan failed to take a single point and lost 11-0. The fifth and final game continued to swing from one way to another before Karim took it 11-8 to avoid huge upset in the first round.
Another Pakistani medal hope Danish Atlas also went down fighting against Egyptian Zahed Mohamed 3-2. Danish took the first game 11-8, lost the second 5-11, before winning the third game 11-6, but he failed to carry the momentum in the fourth and fifth games losing them by 14-12 and 11-6.