ISLAMABAD - Both Pakistanis Nasir Iqbal and Farhan Mehboob crashed out in the first round of the $70K Huston Open in Texas, USA on Thursday.
In the first match, world champion and top seed Egyptian Karim Abdel Gawad defeated Nasir 11-13, 11-4, 11-3 and 11-7. The match was started on a high tempo and Nasir stunned Gawad by winning the game 13-11. But after that, Gawad started dictating terms and took the next three games 11-4, 11-3 and 11-7 to win the encounter in 40 minutes.
Talking to The Nation from Texas, Nasir said: “Although I lost 3-1 against the top seed but I am completely satisfied with my performance. It was never easy of coming after such long and painful gap and start producing results. Anyhow, now I am back and I will reclaim top PSA rankings only in matter of time.”
In the second match Pakistan No 1 Farhan Mehboob pulled his hamstring and was unable to move freely. He was up against Australian No 1 Ryan Cuskelly. Farhan was playing well in the first game before pulling the hamstring and lost the first game 11-8, but after that, he was not able to even stand in the court and lost the second game 11-2. He shook hand with Ryan and left the court.
Talking to The Nation, Farhan said it was disheartening to get injured as he was playing in a major international event after long gap, but one had to live with injuries. “I will train in USA before returning back to Pakistan and prepare for next big events.”
Our Staff Reporter
