ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan No 1 Farhan Mehboob made yet another upset in the $18,000 13th Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) International Squash Championship 2018 by ousting second seed Asim Khan 3-1 in the semi-finals played at Pakistan Navy Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan Squash Complex, Fleet Club Saddar Karachi on Sunday.

In the first semi-final, Farhan Mehboob had to prove yet again that as far as Pakistan is concerned, he is still undoubtedly king of the court and can beat any given player on his day. Asim Khan, who had played five-game matches from second round to quarterfinals had a tough task ahead, as he had match against one of the top Pakistan squash players Farhan Mehboob.

The first game started with both players keeping each other engage in long rallies and both looked highly cautious and were not ready to hand over advantage to other. Farhan did have chances to wrap up the game much early, but like witnessed so many times, when Farhan is on a roll, he mostly get relaxed and allow opponents too much space and freedom. Same happened again and Asim not only closed the gap, but could also have won the first game, but Farhan woke up timely and claimed the first game 12-10.

It was once again dominating Farhan in the second game, who played powerful and clever drop shots to wrap up the second game 11-5. After going 2-0 down, Asim settled down and started playing his natural game, which helped him put Farhan under pressure and win the third game 11-8. In the fourth game, both the players played some lovely squash and were duly applauded by the crowd. Asim was looking in a hurry to unnerve Farhan, who was ice cool and was fully focusing on his mission. Farhan then changed his gears and tamed spirited Asim 11-8 to register victory and booked berth in the finals.

In the second semifinal, Egyptian Youssef Ibrahim sent seventh seed Shahjahan Khan packing 3-0 in 34 minutes to set up final date with Farhan Mehboob.

Shahjahan started the first game on a powerful note and displayed some lovely skills, but after matching fire with fire, he suddenly ran out of gas and lost the game 8-11.

The second game was just one-sided affair as Youssef was simply in irresistible form and took the game 11-4. The third game also saw a supremely dominating Youssef simply outclassing Shahjahan by 11-3 to win the match and qualifying for the final against Farhan Mehboob.