ISLAMABAD-Last hope of Pakistan Tayyab Aslam also bowed out of the $30,000 Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Serena Hotels International Squash Tournament for Men while following the boys, all the girls also crashed out of $10,000 Pakistan International Squash Tournament for Women here on Wednesday at Mushaf Squash Complex.
Tayyab was the lone Pakistani left in the quarterfinals. He was up against Egyptian Karim Ali Fathi. It should have been easy and comfortable victory for experienced Tayyab, who was playing in front of home crowd, but to the much disappointment of the local crowd and top PSF management, he failed to deliver and was beaten badly by the Egyptian.
Karim put Tayyab under tremendous pressure right from the beginning and won the first game comfortably 11-5. The second game was played almost in the same way as Karim raced onto take 7-3 lead, before Tayyab fighting back to reduce the gap to 5-7. But Karim showed aggression and won the next two points and was serving at 10-5, when Tayyab saved three game points, before Karim finally winning the game 11-8.
Karim took 3-0 lead in the third game but Tayyab bounced back and managed to get two points. Karim widened the gap to 7-3 and then 10-4. Tayyab just saved one match point but that was all he could get from the match, as Karim won the game 11-5. He won the encounter in 43 minutes and booked a place in the semifinals against compatriot Youssef Soliman.
In the other quarterfinals of the day, top seed Greg Loban beat Mohamed Elshirbini 3-1 in 55 minutes, winning the match 11-5, 11-6, 9-11 and 11-7. Mostafa Asal beat Mazen Gamal 3-1 in 38 minutes, as the score was 9-11, 11-6, 11-6 and 11-5 while Youssef Soliman beat Mohamed Reda 3-1 in 50 minutes, winning the counter 9-11, 11-5, 11-5 and 11-6.
In the women’s event, all the local players were beaten by their respective opponents. Egyptian Farida Mohamed thrashed Riffat Kahn 3-0 in just 15 minutes. Farida won the first game 11-4, took the second 11-2 and third game 11-2 to register victory. Egyptian Sana Ibrahim beat Muqaddas Ashraf 3-0 in 17 minutes. Although the score was 3-0, but Muqaddas fought very well and gave tough time to Sana before losing the match 4-11, 8-11 and 3-11.
Switzerland’s Cindy Merlo beat Amna Fayyaz in 17 minutes. She won the first game 11-4 and won the second with same margin of 11-4 but had to struggle hard to win the third and decisive 11-9. In the last match of the women event, Koren Jihyun Lee ended last home hope by defeating Madina Zafar 3-1 in 26 minutes, as she won the match 10-12, 11-7, 11-3 and 11-6.