ISLAMABAD              -          Tayyab Aslam simply outclassed Farhan Mehboob to lift the $20,000 Serena Hotels-Huawei Pakistan International Squash Tournament 2019 trophy here at Mushaf Squash Complex on Thursday.

In the men’s final, Farhan Mehboob badly failed against high-flying Tayyab, who recently emerged as gold medal winner in 13th SAG men’s singles. Both the players were involved in long rallies but were playing cautious squash and trying to outsmart each other. Mehboob was looking a bit tired and was not moving as freely as he was witnessed in the semifinals against the top seed Egyptian a day earlier. Tayyab then changed gears and started playing aggressively by applying lot of pressure and keeping Mehboob on the run, which helped him take the first game 11-8.

In the second game, both showed their class which was duly applauded by pack-to-capacity crowd. Farhan got countless chances to wrap up the game, but he failed to capitalise and Tayyab accepted the generosity with both hands and won the second game 13-11. The third game was just one-way traffic as Farhan was completely exhausted and was not moving freely in the court while Tayyab was dictating terms and playing superbly, which helped him take the game 11-4 and won the coveted trophy in 40 minutes.

American Sabrina Sobhy won the women title in the $12,000 Serena Hotels-Huawei Pakistan International Squash Tournament 2019, as she overpowered Egyptian Hana Moataz 3-0 in just 30 minutes. The first game was played on high tempo as Sobhy took time to settle down and then she played tremendously and took the first game 11-7. The second game was played on aggressive note, as after losing the first game, Hana started playing aggressive squash and kept on putting pressure on Sobhy, which helped her take lead, but Sobhy never gave up and kept on playing her natural game. She closed the gap and won four points in a row to take the second game 11-9.

The third game was once again dominated by Hana, who took a healthy lead but later on, she provided too much space by committing childish mistakes, which allowed Sobhy to stage another comeback as she first closed the gap and then played some swashbuckling shots to win the game 11-9, thus clinched the fourth title of the year. She thanked the crowd, Pakistan Squash Federation and players for such a wonderful stay in Pakistan and promised to come again and again here.

Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Asim Zaheer graced the closing ceremony as chief guest and distributed prizes and trophies among the finalists. CEO Serena Hotels Aziz Bolani, squash legend Qamar Zaman and squash lovers were also present on the occasion.