From left: Pakistan’s squash gamers Ashab Irfan and Asim Khan are seen on this collage. —Instagram/@ashab.irfan/@asimkhansquash
KARACHI: Pakistan’s squash stars Ashab Irfan and Asim Khan produced commanding performances to safe semifinal berths on the ongoing Johns Creek Open in america.
Prime seed Asim Khan overcame a tricky problem from Egypt’s Omar El Kattan, clinching a 3–1 win in 46 minutes. After dropping the primary sport 10–12, Khan rebounded strongly to take the following three 11–3, 11–3, and 13–11.
In the meantime, Ashab Irfan cruised previous Mexico’s Cesar Segundo with a straight-games victory. He wrapped up the quarterfinal 11–3, 11–8, 11–3 to advance in dominant trend.
With these wins, each Ashab Irfan and Asim Khan secured their locations within the prime 4 of the $12,000 prize cash occasion.
Earlier, Asim and Ashab booked their spots within the quarterfinals after spectacular second spherical victories on Thursday.
Prime seed Asim defeated Egypt’s Kareem Badawi 11-3, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8 in a 45-minute battle.
The Pakistani star dominated the opening two video games with exact size and managed rallies earlier than Badawi fought again to assert the third.
Second seed Ashab Irfan produced a commanding efficiency to dismantle america’ Christopher Gordon in simply 20 minutes, profitable 11-2, 11-4, 11-4.
Ashab’s aggressive shot-making and excessive tempo left the American struggling to seek out any rhythm.
Nevertheless, seventh seed Ahsan Ayaz’s marketing campaign led to a gripping five-game contest in opposition to Egypt’s Omar ElKattan. Ahsan took the opening sport 11-4 however narrowly misplaced the second 12-10 and the third 11-9.
He levelled the match by profitable the fourth 11-8, but ElKattan held his nerve within the decider to prevail 11-8 after 58 minutes of intense play.
Pakistan’s Muhammad Huzaifa Ibrahim additionally bowed out within the spherical of 16, falling to Brazil’s third seed Diego Gobbi 9/11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 in 47 minutes.
Huzaifa began strongly by claiming the primary sport however was unable to keep up the momentum in opposition to Gobbi’s tempo and consistency.
