ISLAMABAD - Second seed Syed Ali Bukhari stormed into the 24th Asian Junior Individual Squash Championship 2013 final after brushing aside Indian Kush Kumar 3-1 in the second semifinal played in Jordan on Friday while Tayyab Aslam lost the first semifinal against top seed Ahmad Alsaraj 3-1.
Ali continued his superb touch in the semifinal against the Indian lad. The first game was really a tough one as both the players matched each other point to point before Ali finally managed to clinch the game 13-11. In the second game, Kush fought back and won the game 11-5. Ali is known to relax and lose his concentration but coach M Ikram gave him the timely much-needed drubbing which paid off as Ali surged the leniency and played his natural aggressive game and took the game 11-6.
In the fourth game, Kuch was playing with more passion and aggression while Ali was looking a bit defensive. Kush took full advantage of the situation and raced to 6-2 lead. Realising the danger, Ali suddenly changed his game and adopted aggressive style once again which paid off as he first leveled the game 6-6 and then went on to take on the game 11-9, thus booking the final date with top seed Ahmad Alsaraj to be played today (Saturday).
In the first semifinal, Tayyab Aslam lost the tough battle 3-1. Despite pitted against the top seed and local boy, who had strong crowd backing, Tayyab put up a decent fight and went down fighting. Ahmad won the first game 11-9, but Tayyab never lost heart and took the second game 12-10. After playing two tough games, Tayyab seemed out of steam and lost next two games 11-5 and 11-7, thus losing the semifinal. Tayyab will play for third-fourth position match today (Saturday) against Kush Kumar.