Pakistan’s only hope Nasir Iqbal lost in the men’s event semifinals of the 21st Asian Individual Squash Championship for Men and Women here at Mushaf Squash Complex on Saturday.
Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has organized the Asian Individual Squash Championship from December 15 to 19.
The Men and Women events semifinals were played on Saturday. Men’s event: In the 1st semifi-nal, Ng Eain Yow from Malaysia outplayed Lau Tsz Kwan from Hong Kong with a game score of 11-4, 11-4, 11-9 in 30 minutes while in the second semi-final, Yip Tsz Fung from Hong Kong downed Nasir Iqbal with a game score of 11-6, 11-4 and 3-1 (R) in 29 minutes.
Women Event: In the 1st semifinal, Tong Tsz Wing of Hong Kong beat her country mate Liu Tsz Ling with a game score of 12-10, 4-11, 11-4, 11-6 in 33 minutes whereas in the 2nd semifinal, Rachel Mae Arnold of Malaysia outplayed Ho Tze Lok of Hong Kong with a game score of 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7 in 40 minutes.
The women’s final would be played at 1400hrs while men’s at 1500hrs on Sunday. It may be men-tioned here that the Men event had a draw of 32 players whereas, the Women event included 16 players’ draw. Apart from Pakistan, a group of in-ternational players, officials and referees from Hong Kong, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore and Sri Lanka were featuring in the championship.
In Men’s event, there were four players each from Hong Kong, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, six from Pakistan and two from Qatar whereas, in Women’s event, there were four players each from Hong Kong and Malaysia while six from Pakistan and two from Sri Lanka.—APP