ISLAMABAD - Danish Atlas, Zahir Shah, Mansoor Zaman Junior and surprise package Haris Iqbal made it to the main round of the $10,000 Pakistan Squash Circuit-1 2018 here Mushaf Squash Complex Wednesday.
The main match of the day was witnessed between the dark horse Haris Iqbal and M Farhan. Haris, who upset Kashif Asif the other day made yet another upset when he beat seasoned campaigner Farhan 3-2, which nearly lasted an hour. It was truly a remarkable victory by Haris, who was 0-2 down and almost out of the race. But the youngster never showed any signs of weakness and kept on fighting till the target was achieved. It was delight to watch that Pakistan squash had lot of potential and talent, the only need is to explore that talent and provide them with training and international exposure.
Haris was a clear underdog in the match, as he was up against Farhan, who had huge reputation of being the giant killer and had played lot of matches in the past too. As per expectations, it was Farhan, who started very brightly and soon put Haris under tremendous pressure. Farhan was in complete command and took the first game 11-4 in just 6 minutes while second game was played on a high tempo and it kept on swinging from one way to another before it was Farhan again, who kept his composure and took the game 12-10 in 15 minutes. Haris was down but not out and was looking more confident despite on the brink of elimination. The youngster showed tremendous fighting skills and started to display the best he got and simply outclassed Farhan to take next two games 11-5 and 11-3. In the 5th and deciding game, Haris slowed the tempo and allowed Farhan to make comeback in the match. But it was not more than a ploy by Haris as Farhan started to put extra efforts and started to get tired and Haris simply blew him away and won the 5th game 11-5 in 13 minutes. Haris will now play the main round match against 5th seed Israr Ahmed.
Former Pakistan number 1 Danish Atlas Khan was up against highly reputed Noman Khan of Karachi, who had huge reputation of being highly promising youngster and had made few reasonable upsets in the past too. Danish started the first game at slow pace, which allowed Noman to breathe freely and he played some good squash, but as soon as Danish warmed up, he started to show why he is still one of the best in the business. Danish took the first game 11-6 in 8 minutes, second 11-4 in 4 minutes and took the third game 11-8 in 9 minutes to set main round clash with 7th seed Zeeshan Khan.
Another breath-taking encounter was witnessed between former Asian Junior team champion Bilal Zakir Khan and Zahir Shah. Bilal was commanding in the first game as he had 10-7 lead but he blew away the lead and it was Zahir who had game point at 11-10. Bilal bounced back and first leveled the game at 11-11 and then went onto take the first game 13-11 in 9 minutes. Second game was also played on a high voltage as both players played out their hearts. But it was Zahir, who took the game after surviving nervy moments 14-12 in 10 minutes. After playing so well and matching fire with fire, Bilal got tired and allowed Zahir to dictate terms, which he dully obliged and took third game 11-4 in 8 minutes and won the 4th game 11-3 in 6 minutes to set main round clash with 8th seed Umair Zaman. In the 4th and last place on offer match played between Mansoor Zaman Junior and Iqtidar Khan. The first game started on a whirlwind fashion and Iqtidar kept Mansoor under constant pressure and kept him on the run. But Iqtidar started to hobble and stop moving as freely and lost the game 8-11 in 7 minutes. Iqtidar took injury time out but he failed to recover and had to concede the match. Mansoor will take on former Asian Junior Individual champion Tayyab Aslam in the main round.
